Connecticut western news., 1882-07-26
STATE VS. RAILROADS.

tlon, to-wlt: Whether railroads can be con- pelled by mandamus to receive and carry freight, according to the usual course of business. The strike had caused blockade which the company claim they could not raise with green hands. causing immense damage to the general business interests of the country. Some of the business men of New York applied to the Attorney General of the State to interfere and after investga- ting the matter he made a motion to the Su. preme Court Tn New York city for a man. danaus, which motion came on for argument before Judge Haght last week. A long array of eminent counsel appeared in the case but) the principal arguments were made by the Attorney General for the State, and Ex Judge Shipman and Ex-Senator Conklng for the railroad companies. Judge Shipman took substantially the ground that the chartered companies of the State own the railroads in the same sense in which other tangible prop erty is owned, and have tho right to operate them in their own way, and according to their own discretion. The corporations are not public but private corporations, and as Chan cellor Kent says, if the foundation is private the corporation is private, however extensive the uses msy be to which they are devoted by the founders or by the nature of their in- stitution. It may be said that railroad corporations, though private are common carriers and so perform quasi public function. But granting all that can be claimed from this, they stand as carriers on the same ground, subject to the same duties and liabil- ites as individual common carriers, unless their duties and liabilities are effected by some particular statute, and if it be said that through the present difficulty the respondent companies have failed to comply with the statute, the conclusive answer is that If that be granted this is not the remedy which the Attorney General is authorized to pursue.
 The Attorney General contended that rail- road corporations are something more than private corporations and have duty to per. form to the public; that it is not mere ques- tion between private parties and these com panies, but between them and the people of the State of New York. They are the re- cipients of certain special rights and pow. CTS granted to them. not simply to enable certain members of the community to make money out of the rest but to serve a public purpose, and if they refuse or neglect 10 per- form their duties to the public there must be some remedy and the Courts must have pow CT to apply the remedy, and it is the duty of the Attorney General to bring the matter to the attention of the Court that the remedy may be applied and enforced.
 MT. Conkling made the closing argument and took substantially the same ground as Judge Shipman, dwelling on the point thatit was mere question between private parties and that it was not case for a mGndamus or the interference the Attorney General the only remedy was an action for damages on the part of those who felt aggrieved. In conclusion, Mr. Conkling said
 Something has been said about the extrin- sic effect of this proceeding. 1 shall make no apology for one, in any presence, for the doctrines which l have maintained on this occasion. If there be in this world part nernership between men which is natural, wise, useful, it is the partnership between C1plGdl anu IdUOf, 0etWeeu tue luitl WHO neeuS work and the man who is willing to pay for it. If any advantage is to be gained by one over the other, all my life, all my feelings compel me to be wholly on the side of the man who labors. 1 want him, and within any sphere of mine I mean him to receive always fair days wages for a fair days work. But let me say to your Honor, att tempts like this, engendering the feeling they do, could they succeed, being, as they would, the signal for coming agitation and bad blood, mean no good to the honest toiler with his hands. They may promote the schemes of some man or men who inclte him, aud who use the name of the working man as the name in which he carries forward this or another proceeding; but they mean no good for any honest man who laboTs. They mean harm and loss and injury. It is important and desirable that freight should be carried, and promptly carried. It is vastly more important that law should be maintained, and vastly more important that the Court should not be dragged by glamour out of its province Itis vastly more important that the ministers of the law should not be entangled in con. troverses with which legally they cannot be asked to meddle."
 The Court took the papers and reserved it's decision. It was stated in the argument that this was the first application of the kind ever made to the Court, and as the N. Y. Times says: If this is fact it gives the case extraor. dinary importance, and the precedent to be es- tablished may have far-reaching effect. If railroad companies may consult theIr own convenience, their own interest in contest with workmen or their own immediate profit in regard to receiving. forwarding and deliver ing goods, it is emineutly desirable that the community should be authoritatively informed to that effect.
 We are not aware that the question in- volved in this proceeding has ever been di- rectly decided in this State, but there is case reported in the Connecticut Reports which, although not precisely analogous, has some bearing on some of the grounds taken by counsel for the respondent companies. The Hartford and New Haven railroad company was chartered to construct and operate road from Hartford to the navigable waters of New Haven harbor. A steamboat company was afterward chartered to run in connection with it to New York, and the railroad and line of steamboats constituted route that was of great convenience to the public. After the construction of the road and the use of it 1n connection with the steamboat line for sever- al years, the railroad company constructed track diverging from the original track at point mile and a half from it's terminus at tide-water, and running to the station of the New York and New Haven roailroad company and discontinued the running of passenger trains to the original terminus at tide-water. 1h.a channa incommndad travellers who wished