New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-10-01

Just as Ii the spOuter had no power 70 trOuDie
and the Granger had never been. One OF the
most important matters which is to come
before the Convention is that of the appoint
ment and confirmation of the new Board OF
Railway Commissioners which has been re-
Gently organized to act as q sort of Amphyc-
tonic council, to consider and decide ques-
tons arising among the different roads. The
very appointment of such board indicates
meritOriOus state of feeling in railway circles.
If competing roads were not, on the whole,
inclined to deal fairly with each other and
with the public, no such Commission would
have been instituted, and still less would men
of 80 high character as those selected have
been placed upon them.
, The present war of the hotel ticket agencies
is singular evidence at once OF the advan-
tage of this kind of mutual confidence. and OF
the efforts which are continually made to de-
stroy it. The agencies were abolished partly
because of the unnecessary expense, ana parity
because the roads were driven by their sharp
competition to paying exorbitant and increas-
ing commissions to the agents. AS soon as
the roads came to an understanding ana dis-
continued these sources of waste, the agents
adopted singular but ingenious plan Ior
breaking the combination The Central and
Lake Shore roads had been most prominent
in the abolition of the agencies. The decapl-
tated agents therefore resolved, with wonder
full magnanimity, to do all in their power to
promote the sale of tickets upon these roads,
so as to excite the jealousy of competing lines
and induce them to come back to their former
system of liberal commissions. Thus far the
maneuyer has been without effect. lt remains
to be seen whether the agents have speculated
in vain upon the natural weaknesses of the
railway officers who have offended them.
The railway business in this country GER
tainly gives occasion for the exercise of more
sense and more nonsense than any other with
which we are acquainted. 1t employs the best
and the worst efforts of many thousands of
minds From one end of the land to another,
in Offices, stations and gravel pits, on the foot
board and in the machine shop, men without
number are engaged with all their might in
devising ways by which travel may be made
swifter and easier, and transportation more
prompt and satisfactory Great things have
already been accomplished, but there is no
disposition to rest. Not day passes but that
some director, conductor, engineer or brake
man invents some device which is decided
improvement on all that has gone before.
These are the serious men who believe
in their work. But at the same time
there is yeoman's service done every day
by the ignorant and the dishonest There are
too many directors and projectors whose only
care is to float their worthless securities; and
there is this new swarm of talking-men who
have paralyzcd the railroad system of Wis
consin, and stand threatening those of Iowa
and Illinois. We have faith that the men Of
sense and industry, those who build and think
and invent and work, will tire out and sur
vive the loquacious bunderers. 1t is to be
hoped that the clear-headed and practical
men who meet in this city to-day may act in
the conviction that they and the public are
the only parties whose interests or prejudices
it is necessary in the long run to regard.