The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1881-01-07
RAILROADS C0NFEDERATING TO RULE
THE COUNTRY,
Sew York Times

consolidation of railroad lines in one
part or another in this country. These
movements go on without any interposi-
ton of public authority and little regard
to any claim of the public TO be consult
ed or considered. Each. one of them
adds strength to that corporate power
whose "malign influence" on the nation
al and state legislatures was not long
ago declared by prominent United
States Senator TO be "well grounded
cause of alarm" The tendency every
where is toward an absorption of the
important short lines and union of in
terests that lie in the same general line
of transportation, either by actual con-
solidation Of companies or by combina-
lions under contracts and agreements
which produce virtual unity OF control.
Thus there is forming On the face of
the territory comprised within the Unit
ed states great confederacy of railroads
whose ultimate power it is not easy to
forecast. However great the separate
systems may be, and however far they
may be rivals in the business of the
through transportation, they will have
certain interests in common. They will
have a common interest in resisting gov
eminent control, in obtaining and main
tanning 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 depot
ism of iron upon the face of this land,
and regulate the development of indus
trial interests, direct the currents of
trade, and exercise n control over all the
energies ofthe 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 will
have our material interests ut its mercy.
| OF course, such a power, acting without
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 iniure that business as a whole
!, wiriIosTf sessssEFz defeating its4sawz Ilrr-
poses, but il could do great injustice TO
persons and places, and interfere serious
| ly with the natural and equitable course
| of things; and it could lay tax on the
country for the enrichment of the pluto
cracy that directed 1t greater than that
which the government would dare TO
exact.
A committee of the United States
senate reported six years ago that even
| at that time the men who controlled the
| four great trunk lines between New
| York and Chicago could "by a single
stroke of the pen' reduce the value OF
property in this country by hundreds OF
| millions of dollars. An additional
charge of five cents per bushel on the
| transportation of cereals would, they
said, "have been equivalent to a tax OF
forty-five million dollars on the crop O
| 1878. No congress would dare to eXer
else so vast a power except upon neces
sity of the most imperative nature" l
this were SO then, how vastly increased
with this irresponsible power have be
come when the work of consolidation
and confederation has gone on q few
years more. Of its incipient strength
we have had many instances already
What will be its enormous might whel
it has reached its full maturity: Thi
growing corporate power has bee
, created by the people, and we are toll
by high legal authority that il holds an
exercises all its privileges subject to tn
public VIII. No power inherent in tn
state has been given up to 1t. The abs
lutte right to bring il into subsection an
keep il in control exists. 1t holds n
; ultimate property in the highways whic
il has been permitted TO construct an
to use, and it is exercising franchise
granted by the public which give thf
public authority over il. But it threa
: ems to become O question whethe
the master or the servant is more powe
full and which shall rule the other. tn
| public can work only through legisls
: ton and the administration of laws, an
] the railroad confederacy will vie wit
s the people in making and controllin
r legislatures and administrations. The
have already entered into the contel
here and there and at one time and al
+ other, and not without instances of T
8 markable success. The United Stat
5 senator before quoted predicted that
:, struggle is impending in the near futul
; between the ovefgrown power, with i
vast qualifications all over the union ar
hard grip on much of the politics
machinery on the one hand an
Z the people in an unoTganized conditiC
: on the other, for the control of the 60
: ernmento This new and growing CO
: federacy overlies state lines and is OF
: growing local Jurisdiction. Interior p
u iItical boundaries can neither conflI
nor divide-it. The government which
c will ultimately aim TO control is the q
: tionai government, aud the power tn
G must bring il into subsection is the n
i 4tional power The longer the strugg
I il put off the harder and mere distnr
e ing it viii be- Shall il be postponed U
e ill the whole aroused energy Of the I
s. tion is necessary TO bring the confetlei
cy OF railroads into submission to lawf
authority and into respect for q
I rights of the people:
a