Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-12-23
AN IMPENDING DANGER.
New York Times, Dee. s.

part or another of this country. These
movements go on without any inrerposi-
ton of public authority and little
regard to any claim of the public to be
consulted or considered. Each one of
them adds strength to that coporate
power whose "malign influence" on the
National and State Legislatures was
not long ago declared by prominent
United States Senator to be "well-
grounded cause of alarm" There was
recently report that the New York
Central ( Hudson River, with the
Lake Shore & Michigan Central under
It's control, was about to make a eombi-
anton with the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy and the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe which. with one more possible
connection, would bring through line
across the continent under practically
undivided Management Though
this has been denied, there have been
negotiations looking in that direction.
Mr.. Jay Gould has been for some time
at work making combinations in the
West and Southwest which evidently
have in view a through connection
from the Mississippi River to the
Pacific Ocean under one control,
which is then to turn back over the
Wabash system to the great lakes,
thence to complete a union with some
of the trunk lines eastward to the
Atlantic. Before very long there are
likely to be three lines of railroad
crossing the barrier of the Rocky
Mountains from the Mississippi Valley
to the Pacific coast, each forming,
sooner orlater, a union with correspond
ing lines from this side of the CONT
nent. The great trunk lines of the
East now traverse the Northern States,
but kindred movement toward consol
idation has begun in the South,
conspicuously represented in the recent
combinations Of the Louisville and
Nashville Company, while, from the
central ganglia on the Mississippi, lines
are reaching out toward the Gulf and
the Mexican border. The tendency
everywhere is toward an absorption of
the important short lines and union
of interests that lie in the same general
line of transportation, Gather by actual
consolidation of companies or by
combinations under contracts and
agreements which produce virtual
unity of control.
Thus there is forming on the face of
the territory comprised within the
United States great confederacy of
railroads whose ultimate power it is
rot easy to forecast However great
the separate systems may be, and how
ever far they may be rivals in the
business of through transportation,
they will have certain interests in
common. They will have common
interest in resisting Government
control, in obtaining and maintaining
laws favorable to their purposes, and
in strengthening and guarding their
power over the business of the country.
BY compacts among themselves they
may lay what tribute they will upon
the industries and commerce of
the people. They will rest like one
gigantic despotism of iron upon the
face of this land, and regulate the
development of industrial interests.
direct the currents of trade, and
exercise 4 control over all the energies
of the people which they may be
powerless to resist The business Of
the country is absolutely dependent
upon the agencies of transportation,
and any power that holds these in its
grasp viii have our material interests
at its mercy. OF course, such a
power acting with restraint would
consult its own profit and safety,
and aim to pursue the policy which
would enable the business OF the
country to pay it the largest tribute.
1t could not injure that business as a
whole without so far defeating its own
purposes. but it could do great injus-
tice to persons and places, and
interior seriously with the natural
and equitable course of things; and
it could lay tax on the country for
the enrichment of the plutocracy
that directed it greater than that which
the Government would dare to exact
4 committee of the United States
Senate reported six years ago that
even at that time the men who con-
trolled the four great trunk lines
between New York and Chicago could
"by single stroke of the pen rednce
the value of property in this country
by hundreds of millions of dollars. "
Gan additional charge of five cents
per bushel on the transportation OF
cereals would" they said, shave been
equivalent to tax of S45, 100000 on
the crop of 1878. No Congress would
dare TO exercise so vast power except
upon 8 necessity of the most impera-
tive nature" IF this were so then,
how vastly increased will this
irresponsible power have become when
the work of consolidation and
confederation has gone on few years
more. Of its inclpient strength we
have had many instances already.
What will he ifs enGrmouS m,uht VIII on