Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-07-25

that if he would be comfortable he
must pay thirty to forty per cent.
extra for seat in n drawing-room
car.
If again, the concentration of
these great enterprises in one grasp
were likely to be attended with q
reduction of the cost of travel and
the burdens of trade, or if it insured
improved facilities to keep pace
with the development of the coun-
try, these would be the redceming
features in the Vanderbilt regime.
But great as Mr.. Vanderbilt I'M
doubtedly is as railway manager,
his greatness shows itself not in in
creased facilities for travel and
trade, but wholly and altogether in
economy of administration. He
makes money by saving it. Econo-
my is his watchword, his motto.
1t was by new economy, he said in
the letter accepting the Presidency
of the Lake Shore, that he hoped to
set that company on its legs. 1t is
by economy that he makes the Cen
trail pay four times more than Eras-
tus Corning or Henry Keep could
ever make it yield. Now economy
in railway administration is admi-
rable from the stockholders point
of view. 1t is not so good for the
traveller. If it means as some evil
disposed critics of the Vanderbilt
regime pretend, filthy cars, wretch
ed stations, general discomfort, and
decreased instead of increased ac-
comodation, the prospect of its in
definite extension is not likely to
overwhclm the public with delight.
1t would, Of course, be childish to
expect Comodore Vanderbilt or any
one else to run railways from phi
lanthropic motives, or as charitable
institutions. He runs them to make
money and for no other purpose.
This being the case and such being
his policy, it is not surprising, con-
sidering how extensively railways
control commerce: govern prices,
anu llllucI!Cc Jul SiooCoI
that people should feel nervous at
the news of this Great Economist
capturing another thousand miles of
railway, and stretching out his long
hand to grasp all the telegraph
wires in the country. 1t is probab-
ly unfair to grudge the Central
stockholders their dividends. But
the people are not so fortunate as to
belong to that happy class who can
not be blamed for remembering
that the Central and Hudson prop
erty, which is now made to pay div
idends on Sis, 100000, was repre-
scented in 1862 by only s5O,ooo,ooO
of stock and bonds, and really cost
about $35, 100000, the difference be-
tween this sum and Sis, 100000 be-
ing mostly what is called, in the jar
gon Of the street, "water;" and that
if there had been no water mixed
with the good old Central wine, the
road could have carried passengers
at one cent a mile in clean, well-ven-
tilated cars, and have paid the same
dividends that it does now.
In truth, however, it is small
matter to a prosperous people like
ourselves whether we pay one or
three cents a mile, to go to Albany,
or whether dust and discomfort do
or do not drive us into drawing
room cars. A much graver matter
is the inevitable tendency of these
grasping monopolies that are spring
ing up around us, and the incxora-
BILE law which Furnishes corporate
greed with confiscation. No stu
dent of history, especially the his
tory of the great corporations OF the
last century-we mean of course
the ecclesiastical bodics-can fail
to discern the fate of so many of our
great railway companies. One set
of men after another growls and
submits. One Legislature after an
other threatens, and is cajoled or
bought off. But the intolerable OPP
preston continues, and year by
year the instinct of rebellion grows
stronger and stronger, until it has
cohcrance enough for demagogues
to make it a plank in their platforms.
Then no man can stem the tide or
set limit to party fury or popular
injustice You can hear the first
mutterings Of the storm in the queer
proceedings Of the Oranges" at the
West. Already, monstrous as it may
seem, judiciary elections turn on
railway against anti-rallway' Even
Congress the other day, iii its fury
over the Credit Mobilier, stopped
but little short of confiscation in its
proceedings against the Union Pa
cific. How long will it be before
some party in this State seriously
proposes to tax the Central all it
makes on its watered stock? Is
there no Ben Butler in the western
counties to ride this magnificent
hobby-horse into Albany and Wash
ington? When the Central was
borrowing money to pay three per
cent. half yearly it seemed mean to
tax it. But now, with revenue Of
$25 900, 900 Aristades himself might
vote to confiscate. Idle to talk
about measures being unconstitu-
tional. Constitutions can be chang
ed as we'll as laws, and when the
day comes for the spoliation Of the
railways, neither vested rights nor
common honesty are likely to OBJ
tain hearing.
Wheat crop in Kansas is good.