The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-11-04
Jay Gould an irresponsible Power

| Bad as our politicians are their stealings
have been trihing compared with the ficti-
tious capital foisted upon all our railroad
systems. For every dollar stolen by the
| politicians in the management of the Erie
canal, at least $50 have been flched from
the investing public by the various man
| agements of the Eric railroad. The Tweed
| ring robbed us of some $40, 900 600 in New
York city; but this was drop in the bucket
compared with what this and coming gen
| cratiOns must pay to those who will profit
| by the difference between the original out
lay and the selling price of the various rail
way securities.
The originators of our railway system
were men of ability and forethought. But
the generation which followed, although
| they were far inferior men, inherited their
| wealth and added to their possessions. w.
II. Vanderbilt really has not much more
capacity than would suffice for an ordinary
farmer, which he was until forty years of
age while his stock transactions show that
| he has not honesty enough to
make his word respected. Yet the
mere possession of vast amount of rail-
way property in speculative era has made
him one of the wealthiest men in the world
The tendency in all cooperative properties
| is to individual ownership. The big sharks
1
men-Vanderbit, Gould, Roberts and Gar
| rett-practiCally own three-fourths of the
railways of the United States They have
the power to tax the whole community, to
make fatal Determinations against local
industries, and the very lives of all who
travel are at their mercy.
Take the case of JAY Gould, for instance.
! He is undoubtedly man of ability, but he
ia deficient in morality He has
CUNNING, AupAurY, PERSEVERANCE,,
the power to plan and the courage to exc
cute. But he has no more notion of right
and wrong in his business relations with
human beings than the unborn babe
| 1t was supposed that his great
wealth was a guarantee that he
would not betray any of his covetous
instinct to the detrimont of the public, The
man who so tangled up the affairs of
Charles LOup that he committed suicide,
and who, with his partner, Fisk, robbed
the stockholders of the Erie road is the
same covetous rascal to-day. Within the
past three weeks he appeared before Judge
| Westbrook and made Il solemn affidavit
that i'll his opinion Manhattan
stock was worthless, and that it WAS not
| proper for the receiver to issue certificates
to try and save it. All this time Gould
was buying, and he and his friends to-day
own majority of the stock. When
he swore it was worthless it was selling UNI
der twenty; during the past week it reached
liGtv-thrce.
Yet this same Jay Gould to-day yields
more power than any monarch on earth
The American people, distrustiul of their
| own good sense, suspicious of the officers
they elect to the legislature and executive
positions, will not permit the government
which represents them to control the cor
| poratons; but they allow four irresponsible
| individuals TO tax them at pleas
ure, and the bHs'ntss interests of
the country are absolutely at their mercy
In every other nation ON earth the tclc-
graph is part of the postal service. and is
owned and controlled by the government.
In this country the telegraph is practically
the property of one man, and he the most
DANGEROUS AND UNFIT PERSON
for such trust to be found any
where. The owner of the telegraph
is absolute master of the press With
ont the news, the journals of
the day would be impotent Jaw Gould can
issue the order and the offending journal
becomes bankrupt. He is also in IA position
to misquote the markets Of the world. A
variation of one cent II bushel in grain, of
one penny pound in cotton, is fortune
in one day to him who can make that quo
tation. Jay Gould has the power to mis-
quote on the markets Of the world every
product and security dealt in on
our exchange, In any other country
than the United States the whole
nation would rise and protest against such
astounding authority being lodged in the
hands of the pureSt men. But with the cx-
ccption of eX-SCCretary of the Treasury Win
dom and The Hour, there has been no voice
raised against the holding of this dangerous
authority by the most objectionable specu-