The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-03-30
THE PRESS.
MONDAY MORNING, MARCH. 80. 1874.
Railroad Regulation.


ton of cheap transit between the ih'eiioi anu
seaboard by railroad was regarded as .no iiios'
important problem for Congress anu 'he peo'
nile to solve. The leading papers year since
wara filed with statements respecting the
had management of the leading Interstate
rar,ad lines the watering of stock and the
many abuses of the present system. We were
told that the products.of the prairies were rot
ting in the fields, that persons were using
corn instead ofcoal for fuel and that the la
borer in the East was eating costly bread. be-
cause of the extortions OF the transportation
monopolies owned and controlled by a few
men like Vanderbilt, Jay Gould and Daniel
Drew and the like. The questions then pro-
pounded were: How shall the people be de-
livered out of tine hands of the railroad Phs-
tines? How can the transportation problem
be so solved as to afford the Western producer
fair remuneration and the Eastern consumer
cheap bread and meat? How can the masses
save some of their earnings? Various plans
we.e suggested. The spectators asked Con-
gress to organize companies ana issue pohas
to them for the purpose OF building railroads
and canals, eniarging rivers and thus solve the
problem by a remedy which would be calamity
hundred fold greater than the injury now in
flicted by the transportation companies.
When Congress assembled the friends OF the
spectators in that body attempted to lgive
vitality to this scheme, but the Credit Mobil-
Ter was too fresh in the minds of tine country
for its favorable consideration, and the coun-
try is to be congratulated that this policy has
no possible chance of success.
The financial panic in September tended to
divert the public attention from the cheap
transit problem, so much so that our metro
politan journals have hardly given attention
to the bill reported by the Transportation
Committee in the House, land which was pass
ed last week. Perhaps the fact that Jay
Gould owns controlling interest in a leading
New York journal, accounts for its silence ON
this subject and its volubity on the moiety
question. The founder of that paper, how
ever, were he alive, would be graphing with
the provisions of the McCreary bill and do
ing his utmost to solve problem thai has
more to do with the material interest OF the
country than any other except that of the
currency. The only leading journal among
our exchanges which has commented on the
House bill is the Boston Advertiser, to which
we have already made reference. That jour-
nal can hardly find words in which to express
its objections to the measure and the con-
tempt it has for the gentlemen who voted for
it, but in it S haste to condemn the measure
and denounce its advocates, it fails to give
substantial argument against it.
The questions involved in the McCreary bill
are of so vast importance as to demand care
full consideration, the first being: Have the
people thro ugh Congress power under the
constitution, to regulate railroad commerce
between the States? On this subject there
is difference of opinion. Congressman G.
F. boar is not granger or demagogue any
more than is Mr.. Willard of Vermont. The
former says that Congress has this power,
while the latter is inclined to doubt it. In
view of this difference of opinion, is 1t not
well to have this question settled? Before
Congress can do anything towards the solu-
tion of the transportation problem, the ques-
ton of its authority to regulate railroad lines
passing through several States must be deter
mined, and this cannot be done until the
question in some form is brought to the Su-
preme Court.
Reasoning from the standpoint of the great
est good to the greatest number, there should
be some authority, either in national or state
governments to check the assumptions of the
interstate lines of transportion. To say thai
neither have any right to interfere with the
companies when they impose grievous bur-
dens upon the people, is simply to admit
that the people were created tor the railroads
"a proposition more absurd than the ex-
the property of another.
If the McCreary bill becomes law, one step
at least will be taken toward the solution of the
transportion question, even if it is found to be
unconstitutional. II will at least be worth
something to know that these giant monopo-
lies are our rdlers and that we must COM
promise with them ill some way.
THE venerable editor OF the Presque Isle
Sunrise is very confident that a large number
of very fair kind of journals in Maine are I'M
duly exercised respecting Gen. Butler, par
ticularly as that gentleman cannot make
raid over the borders of Massachusetts.
The Sunrise and it's class do not understand.
1t is not B. F. Butler per Sc to whom We
SO seriously object but to that political plague
best defined by the term Butlerism-a polit-
ical dry rot which deadens The integrity and
eats out the moral purpose OF great organiza-
tions-a paralysis which touches the public
conscience with moral death SO that unscru-
pulous and sordid wretches can hold up their
heads III public position as honest men, and
oaths OF office and those administered in
courts have no restraint-a moral leprosy
which touches with corruption public man
illness and virtue, SO that brides are given
and taken, defaulters multiply and Jaynes
increase and, in every way, pollute the
fountains of justice and truth. This is why
we protest against Butlerism. If the editor
of the Sunrise will but take the time to in
qnire he will find that the men in Maine
holding Office or otherwise, who sheer
at the advocates of political principles, who
always associate an interest in public affairs
with the rewards of Office, who deeLl that it
is the first duty of the subordinate in Office to
manipulate caucuses and otherwise look out
for the interest of the man who secured his
appontment-are to man the open adj
mirers and champions of Gen. Butler.
THE wordy, indefinite and mischievous let
ter which Theodore TiIton addressed to the
Brooklyn Council, the substance of which
was given in five lines of associated press
news, revives again the Beecher scandal,
which was doubtless the intent of the author.
OF course the Council cannot be censured for
what Tilton has done, but it looks as though
it would accomplish little else than the Ie-
newal of that dying scandal.
In political circles in Boston it is generally
thought that neither Dawes nor Hoar can be
elected United States Senator, and that some
third man must be Brought forward There
is a strong feeling in favor of Congressman
Pierce, who was most conspicuous in the OPP
position to Gen, Butler and his poor boy Sim