Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1880-05-22
CORPORATE INTIMIDATION.

conduct of the political instruments
of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad
company in the late municipal con-
test in Cumberland. We learn, also,
more particularly that the employees
Of this company were in effect in
formed at the polls that unless
they voted the company's preferences
with regard to certain candidates
their names would be handed in for
discharge from the company's service.
It il also said that the ticket distrib-
utors were paid for their work, the
principal part of which was to
"scratch" two candidates whom the
company did not favor.
So far, therefore, as the Baltimore
and Ohio railway company was con-
csrned, the contest seems to have
bssa one of antagonism to the new
railroad, as though it were not con-
tent with its overbearing triumphs in
the courts and in the Legislature. It
must needs descend into the corrup-
tions Of politics-to hire canvasssrs to
intimidate voters to falsify tLeir suf-
frags in order that its malevolsnce
might pursue the infant enterprise to
q retreat where neither should be
found.
The heartless, soulless manner with
which the new railroad people were
followed up divests the triumphs and
defeats of the election almost wholly
of political significance. 1t seems to
have been a battle of railway factions
of invetsrate aggression on the one
part and gallant defence on the other.
Hence, in behalf of the weaker, as an
independent journal. wholly without
party bias, We feel we can utter few
words of warning to the people Of AL
lsgany county without the risk of in
curing misconstruction by thoughtful,
fair-minded people.
What, then, does this outrage upon
popular suffrage mean, and how should
the people meet the issue it presents ?
1t is bad enough that politics is a
trade of principle and policy, a barter
of personal predictions and preju-
dicss among parties and factions of
the people, but there is an equality of
power and interest which in some
slight sense justifes the competition.
Each man holds alike the inherent
sovereignty Of suffrage-his by in
stinot and charter. On the other
hand, corporations are creations Of
the people, with no suffrage, not even
representative. In this case, however,
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad COM
pany comes up as a competitor with
the people in determining who shall
|. serve the people-unwarranted by
any privilege and illegal in the means
used. Hence, by so much as it intim-
idated voters it overthrow the popu-
lar will F.; moreover, whether this was
done in whole or in part, the election
is void. There is no escape from this
conclusion. Not one citizen whose
vote was made of no effect by this
procedure but has been robbed of his
sovereignty, for every inundated
vote, in itself suffrage subverted, Off
set and destroyed the effect of another
vote cast in accordance with constitu.
tional purposes. Even if single
qualified voter had been improperly
deprived of suffrage the result would
be tainted; how much more when
hundreds are forced to distort it,
against their manhood, their we'll
being and The common interest of
their fellows, their wishes and even
conscience; against the purity of the
elective franchise and the sanctity of
the civil compact
How far are these onslaughts upon
our integrity, and this pillage of our
morals, to go? At what point is in
vasion and corruption by the Balti-
more and Ohio oligarchy to stop So
far no limit seems to bar its agrees
iveness upon the safeguards Of popu-
lar rights. Its successes in court, in
legislative councils, over the people
wherever its despotio sway extends,
and in the field of politics, have dec
grated Negatively, it is trueD judicial
depravity with the credentials of in
nocencs; bronzed the front of its
own monopolizing force with deadly
effrontery, and accredited intimidation
at our elections as political virtuel
Ought this abuse to stop right
here or should we continue to listen
to the stilted nonsense about the pro-