Arizona citizen., 1877-12-07
THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY.
Local Application.


 of the International Review, there is an article entitled, "The Communist and the Railway" by W NJ. Grosvenor of New York, which is certain to at tract much attention. and be perhaps, the herald of a reaction that seems al. most necessary to preserve our Repub lican form of Government. IL is bold, statistical and logical, and shows be yond question. that if the communlstic and demagogue spirit which has for years been steadily poisoning the pop. ular mind, and to which pubic men and almost the entire press of the country have constantly catered, is not thrust down and back, it is only the question of time when the great mon. eyed interests will band together, and for their own rightful protection, change our Government to a despotism and no thoughtful man will gainsay the justice of their action.
 The article commences with the fol. lowing paragraph:
 By the light of the flames at Pitts " burg, we may see approaching a ter. "rible trial for free institutions in this " country. The Communist is here. In "other lands he has forced property ito prefer despotism to anarchy. By " that route Caesar came to Rome, and |" Napoleon brought order in his Cais- " sons to Paris, and today a President " is really a Dictator because France " remembers the commune. The gaunt |" Communist has placed his foot on American soil, and already intelli- gent men are heard crying for a |" large standing army, and a noted " capitalist offers $1,000,0O0 for an Elm "pire. This enemy of all civilized " society touches the railway system, and as if by magic, twenty thousand "miles ot rails cease to bear the com " merce of a continent, two thousand millions of property are deprived of "present value, half million of work "men spend a week in voluntary or " enforce ldleness, manufacturing es- " tablishments close for want of ma |" terial, merchants wait in vain for ' goods, the United States is driven to " send its heaviest domestic mails by !" courtesy of foreign rulers, through " the dominions of a foreign power, " State and Federal Governments gather quickly what armies they can, May " ors and Sheriffs not a few play the " coward or the demagogue, ten cities " listen to the volleys of sharp shot, " and Pittsburg stands by with sym "pathy, while property worth eight " millions, is destroyed by the torches "of mob. If this is but the begin ming, what will be the end ?"
 No prominent man or paper in the country will approve the methods, de struction of property, forced idleness, association, etc, by the railroad strik- CTS to attain their ends. Many oppose trades-unions, grangers, etc, but before Mr. Grosvenor, no one has come out boldly, and exposed how equally cul- pablo are all who under one plea or an- other have sought to destroy by law the rights of property or capital. He begins at the beginning and shows
 1. How in the days of prosperity the Western farmers lavishly voted sub- sidies to railways, which when they came, as accurate official data prove, increased the value of property along their lines at the rate of nearly Sl00,000 per mile, how, when the roads were built, and the bonds had to be paid, the farmer turned granger, repudiated the bonds and enacted such laws as to ruin all railway credit in the Western States, and compelled bonds to the amount of S9O0, 0,OOO,OOO to be defaulted and two thirds of the whole amount invested in railroads to be now divi- dend paying.
 ?. How trades-unions have so forced up wages that the price of iron rails per ton, increased from $4S in 1860, to $S5.12 in 1872, and coal from $349, 10 $7 2S, and labor increased from $1.S7, to $469 per day, in the mines, and from 8 to 90 pe- cent for engineers, firemen and brakemen on the cars, while water competition had reduced the cost of freighting per mile from S1.96 Tn 1860, to .96S in 1876, and how the cost of living was only six per cen: greater in 1877, than in 1860.
 All these are proven from official data, and unquestioned statistics, with the absoluteness of a mathematical demonstration, and are certain from the way in which they are put to bring public writers to a realizing sense of the ruin they have been helping, and will go far to cast aside the dema gogues who have worked into place by attempting to tear down great enter prlseS.
 After showing how in every case the