The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-08-27
Che 1altg Atans.
What are Railroads Built for!

Somebody at Braidwood, Illinois-some
body who probably belongs" to railroad
ompany-thinks that ''as elements Of this
so-ealled railroad question, it is well tore-
member several things and among others,
..Fyrst-That railways are built, not for purposes
of benevoence but for the that
farmer raises wheat and eorn,-to Wit: That Of
making money"
This is one of the fundamental falacies
which railroad men, if they are wise, will
disabuse their minds Of without too much
delay.
The building of railrond depends upon
two conditions, one of which pertains exclu-
sively to the persons building it, and may
be only the purpose of making money but
the other, and no less vital condition, per-
tains to the sovereignty of the State in
which the road is built, and is the purpose
of the public good.
Brown, Jones, Robinson and Others. pro
pose to build railroad for the purpose of
making money what is the first thing
that they find it necessary to do? 1t is to
get authority from the State to lay down
! their track across the public highways, and
to condemn private property for-what?
| Certainly not for the use of Brown, Jones,
and Robinson Certainly not to facilitate
| the money making purpose of those or any
other enterprising persons. Private pro
perty can only be taken against the own
er's consent fol- public use. Brown,
Jones, and Robinson cannot build single
mile, nor a single rod of railroad in any
part of the United States, except by the
voluntary consent Of the owners Of the land
they must cross, or by getting from the
State delegation of its sovereign power
TO condemn private property for public
use. There is not mile of railroad in
the State of Illinois, nor in any other State,
that has not been built for the purposes Of
public use as well as for the purposes Of
making money" And either the public
purpose is paramount to the private pur-
pose or the relation Of sovereign and sub
iect is reversed, by putting the subject il
place of the sovereign and the sovereign
in place of the subject.
In fact. that railroad companies are the
sovereign, and that the State and the PEG
p pie thereof are their subjects, is exactly
] the prepOsterous notion which railroad mel
generally appear to have got into then
heads Perhaps it is because they can SCI
no other way to get out of a rather awk
i ward dilemma in which they are placed b!
the construction they choose to put upol
the doctrine of vested rights. If railroad
] are built for public use, then their publ
5 uses must be subject to public regulation
e and direction. To escape this necessar,
4 conclusion, and to bring railroads who'll
IS and exclusively under the arbitrary man
l. agement of their owners, the owners mus
assume and maintain that they are tn
public" for whose use and benefit privat
d property was taken; in other words, or i
Il the words of Lous XIV, they are the State
- 1t may be said that if the land occupie
by railroad is taken for public use, the
= real property held by railroad companies
: not liable to condemnation, as other privat
= property, for public use" This woul
raise a question upon which the court
have decided both ways though the be;
reasons (which need not here be given al
in favor of the decisions that railroad pro-
: erty may be condemned for public use. tt
same as private property of any kind Tt
point, however which it would be well +,
railroad men to remember is that railroad
are not built solely for the purpose of ma
ing money but also for the fundament
purpose of public usefulness.