Litchfield enquirer., 1873-04-10
RAIL ROADS.

II
 We give considerable space on our out. side to the speeches and resolutions oI the Illinois farmers anti-railroad conyen- ton of last week. The West is waking uu to the necessity of putting some legislative cneck upon railroad extortions. Farmers
 oranges" have been formed in Iowa and wisconsin and Kansas farmers also held copyentions recently Extortionate raiI. road changes and extravagantly high tar lis must receive the attention of Congress and the State legislatures or there will be a political, upheaval that will astonish the politicians between 1873 and 1876. Mas sachusetts is talking of building a rail- road and running it as state property to give cheap connections with the West. l Old and New, one of the ablest. of our magazines, comes out boldly against what 1t calls ''the folly of the theory that gov ernment should intr1st great works to what are called private companies. !" "Much good" it says 'shas the government got so far by e farming out it's railroad buildingr' One thing seems to us certain, however, which is that without a better system of civil service than either statesor national governments now afford, govern ment railroads would be worse managed even than they now are by private con- panies.
 Illinois reformers are having much diffi- culty with what are called 'sclose" char ters. In Connecticut there is no such diff ticulty to be met. All the charters are subject to legislative alteration or repeal and there would be no legal objection to the regulation of fares and freights, as has been proposed in several of our last legislatures.
 The issue between Western railroads and Western farmers seems to be chiefly on two points; the enormous sums exact ed for payment of dividends on watered stock, and the unfair discriminations in fa- vor of through against local business. The Housatonic stop-off charge is liberal proceeding, apparently, compared with the extortionate freights charged on local business by Illinois railroads The truth would seem to be that where there is con- petition, railroads do business below liv- ing rates; where thereis no competition. they more than make up their defi- clencles by exorbitant charges on way business. With the general tendency to consolidation, competition grows of less and less avail, and until state or national governments intervene, matters will cer- tainly grow worse rather than better. In this State, consideration of state in- reference has been hitherto postponed by l railroad influence ill our legislatures. The N. Y. < N. H. railroad has recently suc- cumbed to the demands of those living on the New York portion of its line, who would otherwise been got an enactment in their favor from the New York legislature. Can Connecticut do nothing? The Farmers Milk Co.,, tho new orga- nization with $200,0OO capital for dispos-
 
 without aid of middlemen, has started business as will be seen by an advertise ment in another place. This is one of the most important enterprises to the farmers of the Housatonic, Shepaug and Nauga- tuck valleys that has ever been undertak en. If it succeeds as its projectors an- ticipate, the milk distributing business in New York city will go into the hands of an honest company, controlled by the. farm CTS themselves. Even if it becomes a monopoly, as many fear it may, we do not see how it can make matters worse than they now are. About $10,OOO of the stock of this company were taken in the Housatonic valley and more will undoubt- edly be taken if the company accomplish es what is expected of 1t. ...- .i.
 Of all the political partisanship we have seen this spring the savagest has been the opposition of the Temperance Journal to Mr. Haven. In an article entitled ''Tako the Case to God, ,'' that journal calls MT. Haven liar because he referred some temperance men to his past'lif as guarantee that he is on the right side of ''the great moral issue of the time" We give the following extract That is public lying, and Mr. Haven's general | character will not relieve him from the charge. 1 His general character will not cover and vindi- l cate this false act. This act believe God hates, and hates in MT. Haven, as He mated it in | Henry Wilson and Schuyler Colfax. Therefore, l are dsi God 10 Keep Nr. HGcen aud al mten-dts- honest i1l polticsom Of public place and poa-er, and we shall do all that we ourselves can to keep him out. We speak thus frankly because we have nothing to conceal. We beliece 'hdt 'ce can | speak so tj God, and that He aciu hear Let us then take the case to God, and keep it there till election day. The issues of public as of pri vate life are with Him.
 The ''banner' towns of the county are Roxbury and Washington. For the first