Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-01-19

EVENING, JAN. 10. 1881.
State Control OF Railroads ana Tele'
graphs.
The Pennsylvania Legislature has very
important work before it at this session
iu framing the needed laws to carry out
vital principles Of the constitution which
remain imperative because OF the failure
of previous Legislatures to make the en-
actments commanded by the constitu-
ton, and which are required to give its
mandates practical force. Governor
Hoyt has called the attention Of the Leg
islature to the transportation question,
and his views are in harmony with the
general sentiment of the state. There
will he no party question raised in en-
acting the laws necessary to give them
force if the Republicans of the I.egisla-
ture are in sympathy with them, for they
meet the Democratic idea.
The governor reminds the Legislature
that section II of article II of the constl-
tuition, which prescribes that the Gen.
eral Assembly shall enforce by appro-
pirate legislation the provisions of
this article" "llas not up to this
time been complied with; the
provisions of that article being that
everyone shall have equal rights OF
transportation for persons and property
over railroads and canals, and no undue
or unreasonable discrimination shall be
made in charges for, or In facilities for,
transportation of passengers within the
state or coming from or going to any
other state and that no discrimination
shall he made in transportation charges
and facilities by abatement, drawback
or otherwise, and there shall be no pref
erences in furnishing cars or motive
power !; and that charges for carrying
persons and property to any station shall
not exceed the charge for carrying the
same class in the same direction to any
more distant station.
These reasonable and just provisions
of the constitution there is no room for
refusing obedience to. AS Governor HOyt
says, they are $50 obviously just and
right as to preclude question or de-
hate" Why then has the Legislature
thus far failed to obey the constitutional
mandate to pass the laws required to en-
force them 1t can only be because the
majority in the Legislatures that have
assembled since the adoption of the con-
stitution have not been disposed to do
what is obviously just and right" and
what had been ordered by the people, but
were more the servants of the corpora
tions Who were to I've controlled than of
the state which had declared how they
should be restricted. We trust that the
present Legislature has met in a differ
ent spirit and will be ready to discharge
the obvious duty that the governor has
pointed out to it, and which is certainly
Of more Importance than the dispute as
to who shall Ike senator. which seems now
to engross its whole attention.
When it gets down to work it will
find other important constitutional pro-
visions which demand its action for their
enforcement. At present the attention
of the whole country is drawn to the at
tempt made to consolidate in one cor
poration all the telegraph lines, and to
make gigantic monopoly of the bllsi-
ness. The Undertaking has aroused uni
versal disapproval, and the aid of Con-
gress is invoked to prevent SO great All
imposition on the people. 1t does not
seam to be known that, so far as Penn
sylvania is concerned, the project cannot
be accomplished, since its constitution
expressly prohibits it in section IL of ar
ticle 16, which declares that "any as
soci;.tion or corporation organized for
the purpose, or any individual, shall
have the right to construct and maintain
lines of telegraph within this state, and
to connect the same with other lines, and
the General Assembly shall by general lac
Of uayorn operation, proritle reasonable
regulations 10 yirc full effect to this section.
No telegraph company shall consolidate
uith or hold controlling interes. IN the
stock or bonds of any other telegraph com-
I,,.ny orning competing line, or acquire,
by purchase or otherUise, any other COM
i,eting line of telegraph"
No fuller protection could be given to
the people by the Fundamental law. All
that is needed is that the Legislature
shall do what it is commanded to do, to
preserve Pennsylvania from telegraph
monopoly. 1t is required to provide reason.
able regulations to give full effect to the
constitutional prohibition of the consoli.
dation Of competing lines of telegraph.
Such consolidation in any form is for
hidden, whether by purchase Of the
whole line, As in the proposed absorption
of the American Union by the Western
Union, or by acquiring controlling
interest i'm rival line, which was the way
in which the Western Union strangled
the opposition of the Pacific and Atlantic
company. :
1t seems clear that the proposed ANAL
gamation of the competing telegraph com
plnies, being rendered unlawful by the
constitution, can not take effect in Penn
sylvania, even though the Legislature
should fail to declare in what way the
constitutional mandate shall be en-
forced. But if the purchased COM
parry fails to keep up its telegraph
service, it is not easy to see