Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1874-08-13

found. This country is so new, SO raw, and
| so undeveloped, the demands for capt.
tai are so many and so urgent, that
any policy which would tend to drive
capital from us should be avoided If posi-
BILE. The State is but the aggregate Of the
people in the State.
The people are the purchasers OF trans
portation
The railway companies have Transporta-
ton to sell
The law also holds railroad companies to
be common carriers and so bound TO carry
.or all when the price is paid. 1t is now a
mooted question whether that price shall
be named by the companies or by the
people-the sellers or the purchasers of the
article Which of these two psrtiesis legally
authorized to fix that price is probably
determined by the laws under which the
several companies are organized; but which
of them can in fact fix it is a different
question.
1t is manifest that if the company be
allowed to fix the price they may demand
too much. Vendors of all commodities are
very apt to want all they can get. On the
contrary, if the people or their agents fix
the price they may set it too low.
Purchasers are very apt to want commodl-
ties as cheap as they can be had. 1t IS not
probable that either partyto the transaction
would always hit upon the exact equivalent.
The consequences Of a mistake would prob
ably be found most I'M urious,if made by the
people. If the company makes the
mistake and charges TOO much, no one
is obliged to employ it. The producer does
his own CARRYING before the railway is built.
He has the perfect right to do so after 1t Is
built. So. every company is compelled by
the laws Of trade, even if municipal law
is silent TO carry products cheaper than the
producer can carry them, or he will not
have them to carry. The company must
also carry them at profit to the producer,
STE tho product Will cease The farmers
go Iowa will send no wheat to Chicago,l
unless the roads will transport it at prices
which will yield profit to the producer.
The carrier must earn money for the
producer as for we'll as himself, else he Will
soon have nothing to carry. 1t is as
absurd for the railways to demand more for
transportation than the producer can afford
to pay as it was for the man in the fable to
endeavor to get two golden eggs each day
| from his hen-the attempt TO do so was
death to the hen.
Under favorable conditions, indeed, the
carrier may demand and receive more than
fair share of the profits of production.
Where such is the case, when the State finds
the producer makes but ten per cent,
while the carrier makes fifteen or
twenty per cent, it is very easy
and perfectly legitimate for it to say
to the company 1.-The work you do can be
done for less money! we will pay
you for your road what it will cost to
build such another, or you may keep your
road and we will build another" So the
people are not helpless against exorbitant
charges.
On the contrary, if the people. set the
price, and set it too low, the consequences
may be graver. The company has no option.
Il must accept the price named or not run.
If the rates named will afford slight re
turn on the capital, existing companies
may continue to run, but no more capital
will encounter like risks. If the rates will
yield no return, the road can not be run.
Company and community, in that case, are
alike ruined. This expedient seems to be
too hazardous to adopt if a better can be
found.
Another expedient is to build double
track railway between the Mississippi and
the Atlantic over which any party may run
trains, and ali trains 10 run with the same
rate of speed. This is worthy Of careful
consideration.
The practicability of relief through gov
ernmental action is being ascertained by
an able commission constituted by recent
act of Congress.
A third expident, and the most important
of all, is that proposed by the Senate Com
mittee on Transportation Routes to the
Seaboard." That proposes to open or enlarge
several different water channels between
the Mississippi and the Atlantic.
We invite your earnest and careful consider
alton Of that proposal. 1t is asserted that
by an expenditure of twenty millions per
year for six or seven years new channels
may be opened which will lesson the cost
of Transporting the grain product of the
Mississippi valley alone in the sum of
S42, 100000 annually. The figures are start
ling, but are far from improbable. The
expenditure proposed seems large but COM
pared with the resources of the people it is
tritiing. The wealth Of the nation is not
less than thirty thousand millions. He who
has an estateof thirty thousand dollars
can not be distressed by paying twenty
dollars "a year for six years. Besides, a
nation which has spent three thousand
millions Of treasure and an ocean of life for
peace will not hesitate to spend Sl20 000,-
900 for prosperity.
But whatever may or may not be
eXpedient to be done, this much seems GER
tain: If the National Government is to do
anything whatever to cheaper transporta-
ton, only the Republican party can be
relied upon to do it. The Democratic party
has forswOrn all such labors. Long ago they
determinedi the Constitution would not
permit the Government to remove an
obstruction from harbor or river. 1t is
vain to suppose they will find now authority
to build canals or construct railways. But
we are not left in doubt as to their present
dispositions. Two votes given during the
past session, one in the Senate on Mr..
Windows amendment to the river and har-
Dor bill, one in the House on Mr.. McCrary's
railway bill, will prove, beyond all doubt,
that the Democrats, like the Bourbons, have
learned nothing good, even if they have for
got anything bad.
Upon all these considerations, for all
these reasons, we think you should send
Republicans and not Democrats to the next
Congress. If you cherish the deeds of
the recent past and would not see
them undone; if you respect the present
and would not disgrace it, or if you have
hope, Of the future, and would realize that
hope, we urge you to send Republicans, and
not Democrats to the next Congress.
John A. Logan, J. NJ. Thornburg,