Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1882-09-09

company involving over 100000. He
had spent full year in preparing his
argument on il. He believed be had q
sure thing. il the conf would hear all
his points. But the court-a district
court-anDounced in advance that be
could have only half an hour TO
deliver the argument. And the case
Vas thereupon immediately decided in
favor of the railroad. Il was Saturday
afternoon, and the court went home
over the very railroad whose case had
just been 20 unceremOniousiy disposed
Of-and every one Of the three Judges
exhibited 70 the conductor an annual
free pass over that road. The squelched
lawyer paid his fare at three cents a
mile, and felt that he had not had a fair
share Of the sympathy 81 the court.
Railroads are managed for the pur-
pose Of making money. The biggest
and keenest brains Of the age arc en-
gagged in their management They un-
dersfand hnman nature. They know
that judges ar. but men, aud they have
been schooled 10 deal with men. Their
experience teaches them that men are
more pliable and more easily entreated
when stroked the right way Of the fur
than when the wrong way. They seem
to have learned that Judge with
forecl0sod mortgage on three or four
Thousand miles Of railroad Transports
ton Nesting in his secret affections Is a
pleasanter aud more benevolent institu-
ton n deal with in a ciose case before
q Jury than one who would have To pay
three cents mile ON his next Saturday
nights trip home 70 his wife and babies.
The people distrust the great railroad
corporations, with their syndicates, and
their pools, and their consultations,
and their conspiracies for putting rates
mp or putting rates down. They want
their representatives TO share their dis
trust. They see, or think they see, that
the monOpolies, the agRressions, and the
usurpati0ns of tho railroad maQnates of
this country are threatening their inter
osts, their rights, and their very hber-
ties They see, or think they see, dang
or ahead in these enormous aRRreRatlons
| Of property, and power, and privilege in
| the hands Of few chartered lords OF
transportation. They see, or think they
see, these mighty nabobs Of the palace
cars manipulating the great money cen
trcs of the country to their uses; clamp
| ing their iron constructions on the pulsa-
tions OF its Internal commerce.; cOlieagu-
ing and coIluding with favored mOnopo-
lists to speculate in tho peoples necessi-
ties--to gamble with the poor mans
daily bread; tossing prizes up and fling
ing them down by thimb.erigging the
rates of transportation to fit the jobs OF
their confederatss in the market; bleed
ing the snail frei9hter to transfuse his
blood into the VEINS Of the large freight
er; giving cut rates TO the cities, and ex-
acting cut-throat rates Of the provinces,
all in the name of competitions; making
their skillful moves hither and thither
on this great continental chessb0ard Of
iron and steel 80 as always to win the
game against the people. They see. or
think they see. that the Government.
instead Of remaining the healthfui
throbbing heart and the healthy think
ing brain Of the commonwealth, Is in
danger of degenerating into a monstrous
morbid gan9lion Of corporations; that
these growths out of the body politic
are becoming excresences to drink its
blood and sap its energies and usurp the
| functions of its vital organs; in short.
that Democratic Republicanism il fas.
transforming itself into corporate feud-
aIis,n, and the United Statss Of America
merging into the United Corporations of
| AsnariCa