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


and in most particulars by good sense. The
attendance is largo; all parts of the State
seem to be represented; and the delegates
have wisely abstained from side issues ana
devoted their whole attention TO the problem
of railway legislation, which is just now the
vital concern of the West. They hardly cx-
aeperate the gravity of the situation when
they declare that " this despotism which de-
fies our laws, plumbers our shippers, impov-
erishes our people, and cOrrupts our govern
ment,n must be "subdued and made to sub
serve public interests at whatever cost" 1t
is to tho grain growers of the West that the
tyranny of the great corporations shows itself
in the most distinct form, because 1t takes
from them directly nearly two-tbirds-some-
times more-of their hard-earned income !;
but it presses indirectly upon every
class, and. by its corrupting influence
in public affairs, poisons the blood of
the entire country. We have oil COM
mon interest in its suppression, and there
can be no reasonable doubt that just such
conflict as that which now impends at the
West will come sooner or later in every por-
ton of the Union. We know what the Erie
Railway has done for the politics and morality
of New-York We have just seen how it
spends nearly million and half of dollars
in neutraizing the ballot through the illegal
services of eminent practitioners like Will
liam NJ. Tweed The recent lease of the Har-
lem Railroad to the New-York Central 10 an
indication of the combinations going on all
around us to Cypress our commerce-conbi-
nations which are against public policy, and
ought to be against law. New-Jersey has
been in a turmoil all Winter over an attempt
by a railway company to take full possession
of the whole State. Other States which We
might namo are almost as truly the property
of railroad lines as the cars and locomotives
are the property of the company. If Legisla-
lures or Congress do not help us now we
shall soon be in situation where help will
be impossible.
The Springfield resolutions take tho ground
that the Legislature can regulate any corpora
ton which it has created,-in other words, that
it cannot confer powers which it cannot con-
trol,-and that it may therefore fix rates of
freight and fare, and forbid unjust discrimina-
tons. They declare that railroads are public
highways and that the officers of the same
should therefore be compelled to carry all the
business which offers, on fair and equal terms,
and to make connections with all roads whose
tracks reach OF cross their own. They urge
the Railroad Commissioners to inquire whether
some of the companies have not forfeited their
charters by violating the organic law of the
State, in watering their stock; and they insist
that the Legislature shall provide for the exc
cutiOn of disregarded laws now on the statute
book and pass new ones adapted to the emer-
gency.. The mischievous agitation for packing
the Supreme Court, in order to reverse its in
depreciation of point OF constitutional law,
does not show itself in the proceedings of this
sensible meeting, so far as reports have
reached US at the moment of writing; on the
contrary, the delegates resolve that "the State
"must require obedience to the laws from all
"alika, whether the same be deemed cOnstitu-
"tiond or not by the parties affected" and
they request the Legislature to pass an anti
discrimination act in conformity with the de-
cisiOns of the Court.
Another resolution requires the immediate
"repeal of the protective duties On iron,
steel, lumber, and all materials which enter
"into tho construction of railroad cars, Steam
"ships, sailing vessels, and agricultural i'm
PIGMENTS "a tolerably comprehensive reso-
luton certainly, and we presume tho Illinois
farmers would be amazed if they saw list Of
the articles which it would embrace. OF
course, such measure could never be adopted
unless the country were prepared to abandon
all protective duties whatever Nor would it
help the case of the grain-growers in the
least The declared object of the resolution
is to enable the railway companies to build
and equip cheap roads so that they can afford
cheap freights. But the very point of the
present agitation is that the roads can afford
cheap freghts now, and must be compelled
to reduce their charges; that the tolls are
unreasonable; that the grasping monopolies
are filling their Golfers at the expense of the
people; that the despOts are growing too
rich for the public safety. The farmers
surely do not imagine that they will
better their condition by giving the
railroads more money. They complain now
that the rates of transportation are out Of oil
proportion to the cost of the service, and are
regulated solely by the opportunity of the
companies for levying contributions upon the
community. That is the very essence of the
system Of discrimination the railroad exacts
the last'penNy it can get, without reference to
the value of whatit gives in return. II is abb
surd to imagine that the work would be done
any more Justly if we enabled it to be done
cheaper. Free trade would not give us cheap
it would only close our mines and stop
our rolling mills; but if it did, the difference
it would make in the transportation problem
IA just this--tlla' tho railway companies would
become great deal richer and g. deal