The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1879-12-18

L
SHALL THE RA1LROADS BE KING
The Recent Great Startling Combipa.
: tions and the Public Interest.
. New York Herald.
Transactions in railroad shares are
always topics of public interest, and if
the interest may be supposed to be in
any degree proportionate to the extent
of the transaction, the attention given
in financial circles to the great sale of
New York Central shares just made by
Mr.. Vanderbilt cannot be regarded as in
any degree exaggerated. In fact, this
event has not only compelled the min
ute attention of the great financial
world in two hemispheres, but it has
excited the wonder and piqued the Gu
riosity of the public generally outside
of financial circles; and if it has not
especially stirred the imaginations of
our statesmen"> and politicians with
its glimpse at the possible public effects
of operations properly within the field
Of private concerns, this is merely be-
cause politics is the only activity in
which Americans engage without any
fair comprehension of all the limits and
relations of that pursuit. Wall street
and Lombard street are two great piv-
OTIS upon which the money world of
our age turns, and the money world of
this age is certainly more vital than any
other part of it; for the heroic, the
scientific, the literary, the political &C
tivities all wait upon the men who are
filed with the characteristic spirit of
the current civilization. And it cannot
be a concern without the farthest reach
ing relations that compe]s for many
days the exclusive attention of the two
great money centers here and in London.
Precisely how the parties to this great
operation have sketched in their minds
eyes the respective consequences of
such asale and purchase-what specific
objects, secret or ostensible, either side
may have had in view-they have not
set forth to the public; and that is of
the less consequence, because in great
concerns, in concerns of the first mag
nitude, whether in the sphere of finance
or in any other sphere, it IS always true
that the most important results are not
those that were counted upon by the
men who planned the event. It is
commonly said on a small scale in the
theater, that as nobody ever knows
what character is to bear away the hon.
ors. Possibly it may De the hero who
Oh oh oeft = fho IS
primacy as the play wright intended;
but it is just as likely to be his lackey.
And in this respect as in so many others
the stage is only the world in nina
ture. Grand transactions are planned
for one purpose serve another. Some
unobserved line or phrase in law
proves when you get into court to be
it's affective part. We have had statutes
passed to force initiation, and they
forced contraction. Certainly the
trainers Of the national constitution
never intended that the government of
this country should be in the hands of
political conventions, or they would at
least have named such bodies. People
may trouble themselves the less with
Mr.. Vanderbilt's schemes and those of
his customers from the consideration
that everybody is, fully as much as
those persons are, in the confidence of
the forces that will actually determine
the consequences of this sale.
Doubtless, however, this event may
be fairly regarded as one of the early
moves in grand combination with a
view to one more of those peculiar con-
flicts sufficiently known to the public
as railroad wars-great schemes of ri
valry, which sacrifice the welfare of the
people to the large projects and games
of the money lords, in order to enforce
vigorously upon one or another set OF
lines the pitiless principle of the sur.
viyal of the fttest. From the stand
point Of the great railroad projects, the
Atlantic seaboard is regarded as mere
dumping place for the produce of the
west on one hand, and for the produce
of Europe on the other, and the great
endeavor of combined corporations is
to secure the largest dump at their fa-
vored spot. Shall this be Baltimore,
shall it be Philadelphia, shall it be New
York city? That is the ultimate inqui-
ry of all their schemes. With the COM
bination of which the Central becomes
a part by this transaction, it is very
likely that this city will stand chance
to hold its own against cities that have
had some advantages over us in previ-
GUS conflicts of this nature. and with
that result, as it bears favorably upon
our prosperity, we have no reason to
find fault, unless it be secured at too
great cost to the country gene rally.
And that is to be contemplated always
as one of the possible consequences in
these cases. No local advantage is worth
the cost that is to be secured through a
fact which affects detrinlentally the