The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1875-10-21

may be ten miles. l need hardly add that the
corporations look W OF them with great dis
| favor, for they mean ut first much service for
small pay. Great numbers of persons, how
| ever, use them daily on the one road which
has adopted them, and short time since
those living upon an adjoining line of road
petitioned for our Board to obtain for them a
similar Accommodation We tried our best
but the corporation showed no disposition to
| acQuiesce. On the contrary, through the for
NAL action of its board of Directors, it fatty
declined to do so. We then had no option as
to the course we must pursue; friendly inter
| cession having failed, it only remained to
give the petitioners public hearing, and to
take formal action on their request. This
was done, and we decided after careful con-
sderat:on, to address to the company for
| NAL accommodation thatthey should run the
trains asksd for. In due time we were cour-
teously notified, in reply, that the board of
directors had reconsidered its decision, and
that our recommendation would be respect
ed. Here, of course, the matter rested, a
pure triumph Ofargument backed by publicity.
| In Massachusetts there is one thing more
which we are now aiming at, and if that can
be secured shall for my part, consider che
railroad question as settled there for many
years to come That thing, too, sounds as if
it were trihe, and with it everything is Sc
cured without it nothing We are casting
about to effect, in some way, what no State
has yet approached to, practical uniformity,
approximate exactness and absolute publicity
in railroad accounts; and this not in one
State alone, but in all the States This
believe to be one vital, &ical, al-important
measure of railroad reform, in itself incIud-
I ing adj others. The books of all our railroad
| corporations should, do not hesitate to say,
be kept Oh an exactly uniform system, and,
like the national banks, under rigid public
supervision. This, too, for the protection of
! the stockhclder and bondholdcr, no less than
! for that of the community. Az altogether
! too murky darkness has been here lofore
jealousy preserved over the intricate science
Ut railroad bookkeeping, and under cover of
| 1t endless frauds have been perpetrated; that
it is whisA~Aas led to the abuse Of stock
watering AVID made railroad financiering a
proverb, and fol what .-oRly to result in
periodical discomfort on the one hand. and
bankruptcy on the other The old system
has ever proved cover and an invitation to
fraud. We should reform it altogether
! | just now said that if this were brought
about, | thought that the long railroad dis
cnssion would be fcnnd to have done its work
| and the question would be practically settled
for number of years to come. And | said
this advisedly. You may not think so, but
feel very confident that tie agitation of the
last SIR gears Is nor droacing to q close and
drawing to its close also, because it has for the
time being accomplished its work and won its
victory. lou way assert in reply that the
victory is not won until some decision of a
court of last resort shall place the railroad
| ~ ban md
floor of our legislative bodies to be dealt
with IS the people see best. From my point
| of view, do not consider this of any conse-
quence Heartily wish that the Dartmouth
Decision had never had rever been rendered
think it was a very great mistake on the part
OF the corporations TO attempt 10 shelter
themselves behind it. These questions de.
pend on great principles for their solution.
not on clauses in paper charters. The issue
had much better be fought out on its merits
IN the great arena OF popular discussion than
wrangled over on technicalities in the courts
of law. | wish with all my heart that every
railroad in the country had been, like those
of Massachusetts,, specifically excepted from
the operation of the rule in the yarmouth
College case. The debate might have meant
something, anG need not have gone off on a
false issue. Snch, unfortunately was not the
caae and yet discussion, however misdirect-
ed and angry, is never wholly wasted 1t has
not been in this case far from it, for it has
snffced to secure practical victory Do vou
want evidence of this: You will find il, if
you choose to look about you, in the great
fact that the abuses connected with the rail
road system in which this agitation originated
no longer exist; they vanished in part before
the financial storm, in part before an angry
public discussion but they are gone.
The struggle now is over an abstraction
over the thesis in law that as respects rail
! road corporations legislatures are clad with
omnipotence. Sensible plen will not, fancy,
! quarrel long over such commonplace a. this
nor do | now care to discuss it. Gu the other
hand--whatever it may have been five wears
ago,--you here now enjoy what is unqucstion-
| ably, Iii proportion 60 your population, the
most effective, and the cheapest railroad ser
vice anywhere 90 be found. Other cOmnuni-
| ties may and do excel you in each and all of
these respects, but, remember, they very
much more excel you in wealth and popula-
ton Point me oX anywhere else on the
earth Il region which, like Wisconsin, was
forty years since an unpeopled wilderness and
which to-day enjoys railroad system com
parable to yours, and then, and not IN til then,
will confess myself in error.
Regarding, therefore, this railroad discus.
sion as of short, present life, an, none the
less fully persuaded that it will again present
| +.,nlf