Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-11-15
Anti.Railroad LEGISLATION.

AHu-n dllEOdu LIE AoiotAVA'
We reproduced few mornings since
an excellent article from late issue of
the Louisville Courier Journal on the
above subject, which can be read with
interest and profit just at this time. Our
contemporary deals plainly with the
absurd hue and cry so frequently raised
by politicians and ambitious political
aspirants-in the absence of any
thing else to give them coveted
neutrality-suspicious. those greatest
modern engines of civilization and
progress, our railroads. and clearly shows
up the evils and injustice of attempting
to regulate by law rates from point 10
point, to limit competition, and to make
new schedules either by commission or
by the Legislature. In other words, our
Louisville contemporary recognizes the
inestimable benefits which have been
conferred upon the country by our great
iron arteries of commerce, and the
threatened disaster to their interests, and,
per consequence, TO the interests OF the
c)untry at large, by an arbitrary and I'M
iast interference with their equitable
ghts.
Our Ieaders well know that these sen7
timents are in exact accord with those
which have frequently, from time to
time, been expressed in these columns
Our Georgia law providing for Railway
Commission, and giving to that body
absolute and autocratic dictatiOn over
the affairs of our railways, after capt.
talists and public spirited citizens gen
orally had been induced to risk their
means in the construction of such rail
ways, and after the benefits expected
from them had been secured, has always
seemed to US to be the height Of injustice
and ineouity. 1t is virtually placing the
control of millions Of dollars of prop
erty, involving great and important
Interests, completely in the hands OF
three disinterested and inexperienced
gentlemen, endowed with absolute power
t. run our iron highways, even into
bankruptcy, if they should see fit. We
know that the law has been declared
constitutional, and that it has been and
is held that it is a measure for protection
to the public; but, notwithstanding all
this. and besides that our railroads have
hourished despite the law, we have never
vet been able to see wherein was the
necessity for, nor the justice in, its en-
actment
AS a matter of course, the people
should be protected against the encrOach-
ments or oppression of railways, just as
they should be protected against the en-
croachments or oppression of any other
corporations or wealthy combinations;
still, railways. simply because they aIe
common carriers, should not be hastily
pronounced to be grinding oppressors OF
the people and inclined to show no respect
for the wishes or welfare of the public.
Nothing is better known than that this is
not the case; but that, to the contrary,
these same grinding mOnopolies" have
converted bowling wildernesses into
smiling communities, and have done far
more to scatter broadcast wealth and
prosperity than any other agency of civil
lizatiOn. For this reason, even if the ire
mendOus property rights and interests in
vested in them are ignored, they should be
granted some consideration by the laws,
and at least have an opportunity offered
them to present their side of any issue
which may arise between them and the
people Unless the corporations spent
millions of dollars in the construction of
their lines, and In making them availa-
BILE to the public, the little strip of land
called right of way" which the State,
in her right of eminent domain, grants
them would be entirely useless. Surely
when so much wealth has to be ex-
pended on them. and so many risks
of property taken, it would be
the part of simple common justice
that they be accorded some recOg-
milton of rights, and that they be not
placed, as is the case in Georgia, so COM
pletely AID absolutely within the power
of a Commission of three citizens, whose
chief recommendation for the Office they
hold is that they have no interest what
ever in the valuable property and COM
plicated businesses they are called upon
to manage.
A Commission which would be an ad-
vlsOry body, and just, impartial arbiter
between the roads and people, would
afford protection to all, and, as experience
in other States has fully proven, would
be productive of results entirely salts
factory to all concerned. Against such
a Commission in this State no possible
objection could be urged, and, indeed,
body of that character would prove of
decided benefit to both the public and
the corporation.
1t is to be hoped the Legislature will
give this subject the attention it deserves
during the present session. 1t is not that
the Railway Commission of Georgia, as
at present constituted, has not, up to this
time, injured the railroads of the Com
monwealth, but it is what may be
done hereafter, and the common rights
to which the railroads are entitled,
which should be considered. Certainly
the commission law as it stands upon
our statute books has tendency to impair
the value of railway properties, and to
retard the investment of capital in such
enterprises. ANY law which has this
effect is detrimental to the public inter
esis, aud should therefore be either
wholly repealed or decidedly modified.
--
A Philadelphia paper takes the unique
ground that the river and harbor steal
was the cause of the North going for the
Democracy at the recent elections, and
a. hot h.