The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-03-10
MONDAY EvEN'G, MARCH 10. 1873
general Railroad law and Monopoly.

To.morrow the general railroad law is
to come up for consideration, if not for
final action, in the House of Delegates.
So far as the proposed law has been dis
cussed by us, it has been with view to
direct the public mind, as well as that Of
the Legislature, to some general principles
which must ultimately shape our legsla-
ton on this subject, if the state is to
control its own franchises, aud deter
mine the rules and regulations by which
they shall be governed. In the dis
cussions which have been had in commit
tee, Mr.. Sutherlin has stood almost soil
tary and alone, with the ablcst railroad
men and legal talent in the state arrayed
against him. Much has been said about
the English railroad system, and the grants
of power made by the Crown and parlia-
nent of Great Britain, as if thev were at all
applicable to the chartered system which
ought to be adopted by the General As
sembly of Virginia. The policy at first
adopted in England was precisely what it
is and ought to be in this country, namely,
to leave the Development Of railroads
entirely 10 private enterprise, allowing
competition as large range as possible,
and yet not guarding, as should have been
the case, against those combinations of
capital that ultimately rendered COM
petition impossible in that country.
This last feature has been the fatal
one too generally overlooked at first
by most of the governments of Europe,
and more fatally overlooked perhaps in Eng
land than in any other country.
But in those countries the democratic
idea Of social organization had no obtained
place, and that paramount enterprise and
thrift which are only phase Of develop
ment where the assertion Of individual
liberty of action appears, apparently gave
way to the centralizng tendencies of
power under monarchical rule. The
necessity for governmental management
has been more and more apparent in most
Of the European states. and the tendency
among them now is to adopt the Belgian
system, which is almost entirely that o..
government supervision. Such system is
not in harmony with thegenus of our in
stitutions, and hence the legislation
of the states should be OF such a
characte. as to avoid all possible necessity
for goyernmen, interference. This can
only be done by giving the largest scope to
competitive capital, at the same time that
the most effective barriers are set up
against such combinations of capital as
shall render the competitive system nope
rative.
Railroads should be considered and
treated, in great measure, as public pro-
perty. and be operated at all times in the
public interest. 70 get the right of way
the corporators must come to the state
legislatu es, where the power to condemn
private property for public uses alone re-
sides. Our legislatures, in making the re-
quhed grants, should guard against the
evils growing out of the English and Euro
pean systems, by treating the roads both
as individual enterprises and public I'M
provements; and, by limitations and re-
strictions, prevent them from becoming ty-
ranical masters where they should only be
the obedient agents of the public. The
physical condition Of the United States is
such as to prevent all destructive competi-
ton in railroads, such as exists in the
thickly settled portions Of Europe !; so that
this is not thing to be especially guarded
against by American leg sation. With large
cities separated by short distances, and with
small states or nations separated in the
same way, competing lines of railway are
alone possible, and legislation alone de-
manded to guard against them but in Vir-
ginia, which at the present time has no CEN
tres of trade and but small centres Of
population, the cry about competing lines
is the sheerest of all possible humbugs,
and the men who make it know it to be so.
The cry is raised by them simply as a
cover to monopoly, and to frighten
such legislative gulls as may be easily
winged into their schemes for monopoly
advancement.
The great and only danger to be guarded
against by legislation in this country is that
which has brought the competitive system
into such general disrepute in England, and
which is now threatening our own system
with such combinations against the public
interests that all competition disappears, or
threatens to disappear, in colossal monopo-
". The most effective remedy against this
is to extend. by a general law carefully
guarded against combination and menop-
oily, the largest possible privilege to
capital to embark in these public enter
prises. Railroads in Europe are built to
connect centres of trade and population in
this country they are frequently built to
create such centres, or develop such indus
tries as to render new centres OF trade and
population possible. This is manifestly to
be the chief office Of railroads in this
state, and what cur Legislature should con-
slider is the best way to promote and build
up new industries, with new centres of
trade and population, and not to foster