Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-10-15
some of the Work laid out for the
next Congress.

Mr.. Simon Cameron has been 80 communl.
cative as to inform an inqulring newspaper
correspondent that the approaching session
of Congress would be devoted to discussion
of the law increasing salaries, and to the
transportation question. 1t has, besides,
been reported. within the past week, that
the Senate Committee on transportation,
which has been wandering about the country
the past summer, has agreed to report, when
Congress meets. recommending that the gov
eminent build three canals to facilitate
the transportation of productions between
the east and the west; one cinal from the
James liver through the. Allegheny noun
tains know q as the James River & Kanaw ha
canal; one which shall be practically new
mouth for the Mississippi river !; and one
into Lake Champlan, or perhaps, instead of
that, a purchase by the government and
enlargement of the Erie canal. Senator Car
penter of Wisconsin, who is not a member OF
the committee on transportation, has recently
been informing the Changers of the North
west, that in his judgment Congress has
unlimited power over the railroads of the
country, and can and ought to regulate the
price of freights and, besides, ought to build
freight railroad from the west to the sea-
board, and go into the business of freight
t ansportation on it's own account. 1t is
obvious enough that Mr.. Cameron is right in
his opinion that the next Congress will hear
a great deal about the transportation Ques-
ton
| To one accustomed to look upon govern
ment of any kind-except absolute govern
mept-as lightly and for the public good
pretty much limited to the business OF Sc
curing to each member of the government his
uudisturbed right to lie, liberty. and the
pursuit of happiness, the present demand
that the government shall 60 into all sorts Of
| Blu siness, and undertake schemes and specu-
ations that individuals will not put their
money into, is somewhat startling. If our
theory and plan of government have changed
into a sort of mutual insure nee copartnership,
in which everything is to be made lovely to
everybody and the treasury is to be the
common fund from which all bills are to be
paid, it is quite time the people understood
1t; and yet that is about what these raids
on the tire sury in the name of cheap trans
portation mean.
The people of the United States are now
| paying, in one way and another, about fur
hundred millions of dollars annually into the
treasury. This is ten dollars for every man
woman and child in the Republic. A good
deal OF comp amt has been made against the
,ate Congress for the increase of salaries
amounting to about a million of dollars a
year yet here are schemes nominally In
che interest of transportation that will
take hundreds OF millions to put in operation
and untold millions thereafter for repairs.
improvements, d, fciencies, management, &C.;
and we are told that plan of action har
been agreed upon by which they are sure t.
pass, and that the President is in favor Of
nual message. The solid vote of the south
rs to be secured BY conceding the canals that
section wants, and the central belt of states
and those along the lakes are to have their
share of the grab, and are thus looked
upon as sure to 90 for the project, and the
Changers everywhere are counted upon as
supporting the measure, because it will give
them cheap transportation for the grain OF
the west. In short, enough votes are to be
secured by judiciously favoring states and
localities to force the government into this
gigantic scheme and make this raid on the
treasury a success: in much the same fash
100 as the salary measure was made law by
giving members a personal interest in its
| success.
Neither Of these proposed canals would
have any chance of approval by itself; it j.
only as other sections are allowed a share il
this division of subsidies that the treasury
IS in any danger. The north and cas-,
would oppose the southern canal the soutl
would oppose the northern canal {; and thu
central states would oppose the canal a,
by giving them an equal chance at the dol
lars in the treasury. But will the peop
never consider that the cash in the treasur
of the United States is nothing but tn
money drawn from their pockets by taxation
and that it isn't in the treasury for any pur
pose OF giving the lions share of it to sue
sections as want canals? What would eac
man in Vermont say if his money was de
manded as contribution for freight rail
road to the West, or for an enlargement G
the Erie Canal, or any other of the project
! which this transportation committee are sal
+ to favor? Yet that is just exactly what wi
y De demanded of every taxpayer not only i
Vermont but in the United States. if til
measure becomes a law 1t would, probab,,
b. the happiest circumstance, to arouse il
dividuals to realizing sense of tt
: amount each person contributed toward tt
[ annual expenses of the government, if b
i share could be presented to him in the for,
of a bill and payment demanded in othe
words, it sometimes seems as though notbjn
\ but direct taxation would ever bring tn
o people of this country to understand that
is their money that foots all bills that Cor
. gress runs up, and pays all debts that ii
government contracts.
9 But these raids on the treasury-incIudin
: even the salary grab-are legitimate fruit
< OF the notion that government can do an,
:, thing which minority want done; that Il
maprity can, if they please, take the prope
~ Of every person in the country, put it 10
common fund, and then vote themselves RI
I whole of it. They will, of course, 90 throue
" the form of pretending that this is for tb
u common good, and for the deyelopment