The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-11-23
war the railroads.

There have been periodic attem pts
in Tennessee and in almost every
other state to regulate railroad rates
| by legislation and the hue and cry
has been raised against them at
intervals and made a fruitful factor
IN elections. The control of rail
roads by the states is an unsolved
problem and if the attempt is per
sisted in it may result in a national
| commission for that purpose, and
| then the railroads will buy the com
mission, and then indeed will we be
shOrn. We have never joined in
| Jh Sc crusades against railroads be
cause we believe that thu benefits
they confer upon the country are so
enormous that they ought to have
some extra privileges The i'm
mense profits they are accredited
with are not incommensurate with
the good they do the country and
we cannot imagine any circum-
stances that would give them the
power to injure the people more than
they benefit them. 1t proseCutes its
business exactly as you run yours
to make it pay the largest profit
and in doing this it is com
PEELED to have due regard for the
country it traVerses, that its peO
pie may prosper and thus make
more business for it, and its policy
always and naturally is to build up
the towns and the country and the
people through which it passes s.
that their patronage may increase
It's business. Ignorant TRADES and
attempted restraints upon it's le-
climate way of carrying on It's
affairs serve to incense its managers,
who would be justified in Cypress
ing those who ignore their rights
and seek to Cypress them. There are
laws that may be made wisely to
bring them under restraint in the
matter of discriminating as to 10
calities and in charges, but these
should be framed with exceeding
care and due weight given to the
benefits we are receiving as well as
those being reaped by the roads,
and no exasperating attempts made
to take their affairs in hand and tie
them down to rules and rates
framed by men who do not know
a waybill from a coroner's verdict
and who wouldn't know how to
regulate toll on a third-class dirt
road. Some of the benefits that
have accrued to the country are thus
recited by the Courier-J ournal:
Our railroad system has reached |
its present magnificent proportions
Independent of governmental con
troll. 1t has vastly benefited every
state; it has brought food to the
east and wealth to the west; it has
bound state to state more closely |
than the war or the constitution; it |
has created Chicago and Atlanta; it |
has extended the borders of all the |
other cities; it has dotted the con
tinent with new towns and villages;
it. has carried the produce of the |
farmer a thousand miles, when with !
out it he could not send it ten; it |
has given America the control of |
the cotton markets of the world; it |
has cheapened food and clothes for |
millions heIe and abroad, and its
beneficence has been without bounds !
and beyond all calculation. Neces-
sarily, growing as rapidly as it has
done, many abuses have arisen;
many wrongs have been done; much |
injustice has resulted; it hiss at
tracted the attention and excited |
the ambition and the cupidity of |
bad men, and yet when all this is
weighed in the balance, ii is as
nothing compared to the good which
has been wrought. This is not the |
result Of legislation; it is the crea-
ton of individual energy and cour-
age and determination, and ii is due
TO competition.