Liberal Republican. [volume] (Dallas, Or.) 1872-1???, 1873-09-13

cent dearer than IN August 1872, and
| is Predetermined to advance ten cents
| per ton month during the carrying
season, at the arbitrary decree Of the
close cooperation Of transportation COM
panies which controls its conveyance.
Yet at last years prices, these seven
companies. each and all, declared divi-
dends varying from ten to twenty per
cent. IF, this year. these gains rise to
forty per cent, they will have been
paid chiefly by men whose richest
earthly dividend is endless labor The
owners of salt-works hint that unless
they snbmit to be " struck" the tariff
Of freight en their wares is virtually
prohibitory. The share -holdcrs Of
certain mines whisper that the rates on
ores..shift as their votes and influence
are valuable or WORTHLESS to the railroads.
Small land owners falter, that when
they have improved their property
along the line of suburban roads, they
have no assurance that the manage
mcnt, having acquired new tracts
will not shift the route, on some pre-
text of shortening or Strengthening it,
and make their estates valuless.
We bring no railing accusations
agaist dignitar,es. We do not swear
to the truth Of this indictment. But
many sober and judicious men make
oath to it, unresarvedly. And if it he
false, then the railroad leagus, ike
/ Give. must stand astoni>hed at its own
moderation For the seventy thousand
miles OF railway in the United States
are to day controlled, If not owned, by
fewer than ten companies. And these
ten companies are MANIPULATED by
fewer than one hundred men. The
Pennsylvania Central, for example,
operates more than four thousand miles
| ot track, makes leases for a thousand
years, guarantees dividends for the
same millennium, and reaches out its
hundred arms for every new aggran-
dizement. The New York Central sits,
spidcr>like, in the web of its original
charter, and daily catches new flies of
weak, or unwary, or mismanagei
feeders
1t is hard to say where this menacing
monopoly will pause. The peopl feel
themselves ESQ helpless against it, its
possible results are so appalling, that
We are not surprised at the appeals
made to the Government to take con-
troll of the railroads. Yet, to our
thinking. The petitioners would over
turn the dynasty of King Logto establish
he throne of King Stork. With a civil
service which lives and moves and has
Is beings in political considerations, no
remedy would lie in such an upheavel
For the present underlying evil is the
league between capitalist and politician.
While, therefore, we suffered the
passive disappointment of finding like
the sinner in the old hymn, that tbs
poor relief we gain to change the place
but keep the pain,' we should have
ommitted the active error of creating
q dannerous precedent. We have not
yet overcome Our war habit of looking
on with appreciation while the govern.
ment assumed extraordinary powers
And the projects of national universi.
ty, national telegraph line, national
railways do appeal to the Imagination
But, abstractly, government has no
more business to meddle with these
interests than it has to regulate the
price of -four, or the rates on turn
pike. five give up this principal, our
last state will be worse than our first.
But, if government cannot interfere,
governors of government can The
remedy of these sufferers lies, as it
seems to rs, in their. own votes.
Individually they are poor and weak
Collectively they are rich and strong
IF they will combine for their own
protection as the railroad oligarchy
has combined for its own advancement.
they are masters of the situation. II is
an easy formula. It is a hard achieve.
ment. For these men are boun hand
and foot, in many cases, by the
companies, and an independent vote is