New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-17

fashion that must afford Infinite amusement
to any level head in the universe that over
looks it calmly, we have gone on subscr'oihs
by municipal corporations TO capital STOCK
that is Just as sure to be wiped out and nave
no yalue "a the road is to DO built. And after
all this we have contemplated with SURPRISING
serenity the purchase of our Legislatures anu
our Congress by the corporations we nave
created, and called the whole business 'no
development of our national resources" 90
long az everybody else was cheated, we TOOK
it all with great philosophy and SAID oPoi
the whole, we are developing the resources vi
"the country with great rapidity and WONDER
"ful success. There are some drawbacks 10 II,
"to be sure occasionally some poor devl Oh
"a fellow or q community gets under 'he
"wheels, but that is unavoidable; we must
"expect somebody will get hurt but the world
"must go on"
Well. we are putting brakes on the wheels
of this sort of progress-putting them OH
sharply and with emphasis. 1t is good tiihe
to be careful to try to be wise. Let us sec
where we are in this business. 1t Is COM
planned that the country is i'll the hands ol
the railroad corporations; that Congress ID
controlled and State Legislatures owned by
them that they elect Representatives. anu
buy seats in the Senate, and that their re-
tanners not only swarm in the lobbies, but Ill
the seats in every State Capitol that men SIT
even in the United States Senate under pay
of railroad corporations, attorneys under gen.
eral retainers that Administrations are their
game, Senators their creatures, congressman
\ ioio
and the people their victims. The lobby
agent of a great corporation, with large de-
signs upon the treasury, and continuous de-
mands for special privileges, buys Cabinet
officer and puts him in the Senate. Another
agent reaches out a full purse to re-
tainer of the corporation to aid his cleo
ton TO the Senate. Another corporation
pays a Senatorial candidate general re-
tainer that makes his election sure, whlle
other corporations all over tho country con-
tribute to defTay election expenses ana hoid
liens upon the votes and cOnscicnccs OF the
men elected. Let us admit that as people
we have seen the growth of all this in the
past twenty years with very little anxiety or
feeling of responsibility for the consequences.
SO long as we were personally accommodated
and the development of resources and opening
of new roads seemed a public good, we
cared little that the principles OF morality
were disregarded, the maxims of law over
ruled. and the public conscience debauched.
We have arisen in some sort out OF TINS
lethargy simply because we are plnched by
the new condition. The railroad corporations,
intrenchcd, as they think, quite securely IN
Congress and in the States, have taken adj
vantage of the situation. The thumb and
finger of monopoly begin to be felt on the
weasand of the public, and there is great cry
ing out against it,
The people of the West. who, by their rep
resentatiyes in Congress, have done more than
any other section to bring about our present
subsection to railroads and railroad interests,
complain bitterly that the railroads which
their enterprise and liberality have built are
no help, but a hinderance to them; that their
high rates of freight operate as an embargo
upon the transportation of agricultural pro-
duets, which, finding no market, are burned
or wasted, to the detriment of trade and the
poverty of the producer Consumers of coal
complain justly that corporations i'll Pennsyl-
yana deriving their franchises from the peO-
pie, have used the large powers granted and
the immense profits accruing under them
to obtain an almost absolute monopoly
of the fuel upon which the people
are dependent for comfort, and in
great measure for existence, and so
hold the people at their mercy. At all
points and from all quarters come complaints
of the constructing influence upon trade and
commerce, of the twist upon the neck of bust
A. III thog
tons.
In this state Of feeling there is danger of
recklessness in hostile legislation and of too
indiscriminate warfare upon the great railroad
interest of the country. The popular impulse
toward everything that oilends the popular
sense is to beat it over the head with BE
ait enacted :" to legislate it out of the way at
once. The railroad difficulty cannot be so
treated 1t is an interest which cannot, must
not, be regarded as public enemy. The rela-
tons of railroads to the State have never been
permanently adjusted. The subject has
not yet begun to be discussed with anything
like craftsmanship. In only one State has
there been any attempt to so dignity it. In
Massachusetts, Charles Francis Adams, jr., has
brought to its consideration a philOsophic
mind with a broad and comprehensive view of
its immense importance, its subtle relations
with State and people, and the magnificent
possibilities which grow out of its wise and
careful handling Illinois has in her new con-
stitution reached out in q tentative way
toward some better adjustment and under
standing between these corporations and the
State which creates them, and her consttu-
tion-makers were wise enough to make their
experiment careful and discriminating instead
of sweeping and radical. Pennsylvania, by her
Constitutional Convention now in session. is