The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-06-24

Now these New York. business men,
who are Mortified at railr ID profits going
into the hands ktheifba iers And owners,
are too plOus e . build aroad and
take the profitS They are opposed to
" the abuses Of thc present railway sys-
TEN, the inside rings, the swindling man.
agcmcnt, the credit mobilier freight lines,
and the watering of the stock, which make
1t necessary for railway companies to
charge the price of four bushels of corn at
the place of production to get one bushel
tomarket.' They are consuming with zeal
against corruption in Legislatures, and
fierccly demand the extinguishment of
every corrupt and bribc-taking legislator.
Those business men go further, and promise
the people increased facilities for COM
merce," "cheaper food" "a reform in pub
lie morals and pronounce their movement
"a practical step towards civil service re-
FORM" Like a patent medicine It is to
cure everything, and, in the same spirit, Is
proposed out of pure benevolencc, and
from the impulses of patriotism and lofty
virtue They desire that Congress should
build the road and pass the control over to
any company who will put on the rolling
stock and be content with seven per cent
on the money invested This will, they
say, force all the railroads TO come down
with their frcights.
The government will have to procure the
rights of way clear through. OF course
people will sell chcaply to the government.
They always do. CThis il sarcasm.) OF
course the contracts would he easy, grad
ing, embankments, bridges, and laying rails
would be done at astonishingly low prices.
AS 1t would be for the government, and
people always work cheaply for the gov
ernmcnt. (More sarcasm.) Then the rails
would be bought and laid down, and the
road would he complete. AS the govern
mcnt would be the owner it would doubt
less be expected to keep il in repair.
The substance Of this scheme, then, il a
highway, built and owned and kept in re-
pair by the government. with monopoly
to corporation to run trains over II and
take the profits.
AS Chicago business men, enlisted in the
same project, are preparing Il petition for
Congress, We may expect New York
petition and other petitions to set another
nest of Credit Mobilicr eggs under Con-
gress to be Matched in the coming session.
1t is not likely that the individuals who
originate this scheme have any persons in
mind whom they think more competent to
control the enterprise than themselves.
How the government il to know when
the corporation has received seven per
cent. upon its money invested, when the
corporation must necessarily keep all the
accounts and the books, may be theoreti-
cally laid down, but would never be prac-
tlcally exemplifed
Their case might he like that of the old
gentleman and his wife. He said when
they were married he wanted to get rich,
but his wife only sought competency He
had got rich long ago, but his wife was
still aspiring to II competency So persons
who invest their own money in railroads
might be able to ascertain when they were
earning ten per cent, but this corporation
would probably never know when it was
reaping seven per cent.
Why don't these people, if they want
double track railroad to the Mississippi
build one! 1t would surely pay. Th'
West is stuffed full of produce. Passenger
| traspo t,,c toI Go. Il
country with the speed of the wind, ant
the freight cars are adapted to the SAINT
rails, trucks and locomotives. If a separ
ate track should be built what is to lim
the sizes of locomotives and capacities Of
cars but the width of the country?
If we had locomotives and cars foul
times as large as the present sizes, will
tracks of appropriate width and strength
we might find that they would compel,
successfully with river and lake transpor
tation. Instead of cars carrying ten ton
they might carry forty tons. A locomo
tive drawing train of twenty-five sucl
cars would carry a thousand tons, or a
', much as one of the largest Mississippi
steamboats,.
These sizes seem large, but our descend
ants may improve on us, as we have OF
our fathers. The first locomotive, patentet
fifty years ago, could draw one car light,
, loaded, but if the car were loaded till
, was heavier than itself the locomotive
could not move, but would stand spinning
its wheels. 1t was discovered that by dis
, tributing the load through number o
cars loosely shackled together, each lighte
, than the locomotive, it could start the first
then the second, and each successfully, til
ii would mOye Off with fifteen or twent,
times its own weight, as at present. 81
our descendants NAV discover some WAY I,