The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-05-14

cts designing TO call attention in passing to
the fact that the Union Pacific absorbed
much land and money that might have
gone to aid the Northern Pacific, and to
that extent it limited the growth of a sys-
tenn crossing and accommodating all por-
tons of our vast domain. We have one
object more. We desire to show how lob
bying more binders than helps legislative
action for the general welfare, and we de-
sire to store some lessons drawn from this
chapter of congressional railroad history
for use in the future in Vermont, rather
than for present local application.
Lobbying is the appalling danger of the
times one upon which we of Vermont
have not yet fully entered, but upon whose
margin we stand, with the ripping of its
waves just beginning to touch our feet, as
shown by the recent investigation at St.
Adams.
As we have already expressed our opin-
ion that there was no bribery or corruption
exposed by that investigation, we need not
now be at the pains to state that our entire
object is to warn the people of Vermont
against threatened danger. If we allowed
the present occasion to pass without com
mcnt we should not feel that our duties as
journalists had been performed, in view of
the premonition of peril clearly furnished
by the investigation
If we comment upon Mr.. Hatch in this
connection. it is not to throw special blame
upon him, but because he figures so cXtcn-
siyely in the Investigation as to cnttle him
! to the honor of personal mention. He has
not been cXtiavagant in the use of money
and for that reason he serves all the better
for or purpose us Il text from which to
preach a short sermon to Vermont people.
Nothing very wrong is fixed on him; there
seems to be 10 public sentiment against
him. and therefore the principle of the
matter is not smothcrcd beneath IL load of
cXecralion or Indignation personal in its
nature.
MIR. Hatch is every inch IA gentleman.
He is able, possessing courtly manners
having engaging social qualities, quickwit-
ted, of keen sagacity, and competent 'to
make the worse appear the better cause v
This renders him all the more dangerous.
The legislator only sees the sparkling col
ors like beads of dew on Il spiders web, and
fails to perceive the fine threads woven for
his ENHANCEMENT.
More to blame than the ordinary legisla-
tor i the attorney, who, regarded, it may
be, by his fellow members, as a leader
whose guidance can be safely relied on to
pilot them amid the dceps and shoals of
legislation, yet permits himself to be feed
by railroad during the session of the leg
islature and willie it has heavy interests
upon which legislation is required. Strange
that such an attorney should be blind to
the suspicious manner in which the need
for his legal services is suddenly appreci-
atcd by the company.
Unfortunately he feels as if his ability is
at last finding an honorable market, and
visions of future lucrative employment fiji
before his eyes. With anointed vision, he
perceivcs the defects of half dozen rail
road schemes in rivalry to the Vermont
Central, and how the people do not need
them.
Through fifteen years Mr.. Hatch has
staid with the legislature to prevent legisla
ton hostile to the Vermont Central, and t.
prove to members that their constituent:
can get to market if they will only think SO
There has been no bribery, but the prac
tce is one necessarily injurious to the in
tcrcsts of the State, a practice which Sc
duces legislators from their allegiance tt
the public good practice under which
members yield to persuasions, batteries ant
retainers practice to be condemned ant
avoided as demoralizing, and if tolerated
leading hereafter to bribery.
That the Vermont Central had some at
torneys retained in the legal and prope
sense of the term is not denied that they
had some who were retained in the lcgisla
tive and improper sense of the term seem
quite probable to separate one from tin
other is not for us to do. 1t is enough
for our present line of comment that tn,
testimony seems to indicate that there wer
attorneys who were retained or who wers
paid a retaining fee during the session o
the legislature, when they had not pre-
viously been known to the public to be il
the service of the road, and that the worl
done by attorneys residing in various part
of the State, happened by curious coin
cdcnce to be of the same value even to tin
fraction of dollar. Those attorney
should have seen that the time was indeli
cately chosen to begin such retaining o
such payments. A legislators homo
, ought to be above rcproach and above sus
? picion
How many OF whether any schemes L
add to the facilities of transportation AM
travel in Vermont have been stiilcd
how much shorter we have come than W.
i should to having Il network of railroad
that would do full justice to the manufac
turing and agricultural interests in Vel
mont, is not for us to decide. Man
acnclncs Tor new ToillS nave .COlnc DclOT
the legislature from time to time, and thcs
, were notably numerous in the fall of 1865
, when Mr.. Hatch was so economical as +
spend only n thousand dollars, includin
: his personal expenses, in resisting hostil
legislation. Those schemes may hay
been mere plots to cripple the main railroa
! interest of the State by procuring rivi
charters to the Vermont Central as lever
i with which to force concessions. Thes
: were points for the legislature to decide
But the interests of the people were dee
and direct. They would have felt MOI
i like their welfare had been held paramoul