New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-30

"of them in market buy us one And as
"for tho matter of paying for it, there's no
difficulty about that i; borrow the money mt
-four or five per cent. And then with u rail-
"road Of your own you can make your own
"frcight tariffs and ii necessary get your trans
"portation for nothing" Nothing could be bet
ter than this. There might arise difficulty
in procuring coal at q reasonable plice, for
running the road. coal mining being some
thing Of monopoly, bnt tho Boston mcf-
chants would only have TO say to the state,
"Buy us coal mine,' and that OBJ
staclc would vanish. And if after that
tie Western farmers should refuse to ship
produce to Boston at prices TO suit the Boston
merchants, they could very soon remove
that difficulty by having the State buy up q
few hundred thousand acres of prairie and
have its own farmers appointed by the GoVer-
nor 10y and with the advice and consent OF the
Senate. In fact there is 10 limit to the amount
and variety of business which can be carried
on by the State under Mr. Phllips's plan.
There il something very winning about this
whole business of parental government. IL Is
as smooth and simple and pretty on paper as
anything well can be- and when Mr.. Philips
presents il in his flowing periods and silVeIy
speech we can hardly help falling III
with it to the extent of having the State
conduct all o,,r enterprises willie We, the citi-
zens, devote our whole energies TO public dis
cus,ions, to voting and to holding the neccS-
sary Offices. II is short and easy way ont OF
all trouble. The method of Mr.. Phillips
is always short and easy. He mastered the
Slavery problem in a word, Abolltion; the
Temperance problem in another. " Prohibition; :
the financial question in another, "Creen-
"backs" He saw that Slavery was national
evil, 20 he said abolish it. lntcmpcrancc
bciag another evil he said at once prohibit
the manufacture and sale OF intoxicating
drinks. These are both radical remedies. No
one can doubt their effectiveness. His remedy
for financial distress WAS equally simple and
clicacious-iSsuo promises to pay, and redeem
them with more promises. If human nature
was only something else than what it il, and
men would always be content to do business
on promises and live on the cast wind, his
plans would be the best in the world.
Mr.. Phillips argument that tho road to
Chicago which he wants the state to buy
would pay is quite original. He says " the
"ercat rivers of the country run moth ana
"south, the solvent railroads rim east and
"wc@t, and III railroad running north and
south pays" consequently if the State should
buy railroad 10 Chicago it would make
money by it, besides furnishing cheap trans
polt;uon for Boston. We can easily understand,
of course, thai if the rivers run north and south,
the railroad. running north and sOuil, ought
not TO pay. and the east aud west roads
ought to be profitable. That is the way it
ought TO be; but unfortunately there are
several good paying roads running north and
south, and as many east and west roads
that are insolvent. But Mr. Phillips
states the argument 80 plau-ibly that we
suppose we ought not to consider the
facts. And after all il docs not make much
difference how he supports his proposition.
When he says to the Boston merchants, won
dcrimg how they can get cheap transportation,
send out, my boys, and bny a railroad, and
"lct the State pay for it, it does not seem
ridiculous or absurd DIr. Phillips says
things in sucli grand way that we only
admire his magniiiccncc without questioning
his methods. \ man who when his fellow
citizens want money can say TO them with Il
majestic wave of his hand, "Print it," and be
listened to seriously. will never be laughed at
for advising the Boston merchants 10 get the
State To buy railroad to Chicago in order TO
give them cheap freightS.