National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-04-03

III WIS WlSt Ou Jllt IdIJ VI JuuHc IVu-
gan to abandon the ground on which he
seemed TO stand alone, and to secure
from the House Committee on Commerce
unanimous declaration that some meas
urc be adopted relating to interstate
commerce. But we have small hope that
anything will come of it. The railroad
interest is now as strong as the cotton
interest was in ante-bellum days. Those
who were in active political life then will
remember the fury with which every man
was assailed in any convention or legisla-
tive body who dared breathe n
word in criticism of the policy
of King Cotton. If he said that
| slavery had right to 90 into the snow
banks of Washington Territory, woe unto
! that man who dared to question 1t.
| Slavery was great material interest by
which few men were made social and
! political masters in this country. IL tcould
ruin the prospects of any young man,
even in the free States, who should dare
to deny the divinity of its origin or the
humanity of its practice. In the South
it had whips and prisons for those who
should teach the negroes, who were de-
clarcd to be unteach able, and bloodhounds
for the rccapture of slaves who were said
to be so happy that they did not desire
freedom.
Slavery has passed away, bat Man. .-
has not. Another great material
now bears sway. II is the wI'r1
poration. 1t is the artcrinl .ysi,U uH
country through which population arI
products must circulate. u hbf funUUons
to perform which are essential to The very
life of society. All is work j. beneficial
and civilizing II has doubled, nay
trebled, human existence so far as the
abilityto accomplish results Is concerned.
Unlike slavery, it has no moral enormities
which shock the world, no basis of in
justice which makes its final extinction n
universal desire. No. The railroad is
absolutely indispensable. The only fric-
ton produced by it is in the matter
of rcasonablcness and equality of charges.
! Upon this the people who are served are
interested in securing the service at the
minimum. They claim that fares and
freights are tolls over public roads, con-
structed by public permission, under
delegated public rights and subject to
public control. They say these tolls
should be enough to cover all expenses,
losses, fluCtuationsin traffic, and fair in
terest on the capital invested, but no
more. The railroad managers claim that
in addition to these they have a right
to charge an amount equal to the value
added to commodity by being taken from
the place of its production to market.
They claim the right to charge whatever
freight the article will bear. This means
as much as the owner will surrender oft
rather than let the stock on hand rot,
and refrain from further production. By
this rule the railroad companies claim
the right TO squeeze every industry up
to the very edge of destroying it.
Efforts are constantly made to make the
State and National Government umpires
between the railroad men and their GUS
toners. 1t is mysterious fact that
whenever any movement of this kind is
made the State and National Governments
of the people, by the people, and for the
people always find that the measures
proposed to curb railway rapacity are
either unjust or impractical. Vanderbilt
and Gould and few others extract
from the productions of the country
Il hundred millions apiece, and
lay it away for rainy day
and the representatives of the people
from whose productive labor this lions
share has been taken debate with one
another for a time as 70 how ragged Pro-
duction and splendid Transportation may
be more evenly benefited by the use of
the kings Highway. If they go so far as
90 formulate a measure, then come the
railway owners, agents, lawyers, and lob
| bysts. The members hear the learned
expounders day after day, and it
is finally made clear to them
that the people cannot pass over
the highways upon any terms except
those established by the will of the rail-
road toll-takers. And it, after this stage
of the performance, any shall persist in
further advocacy of what the railroad at
torneys say is wholly impracticable. they
will be denounced in every subsidized
newspaper in the land as cranks and
communists.
1t remains for the House Committee on
Commerce to show the country W neither
bill not approved by the railroad cor
poratons can be devised and reported
which shall avoid experimental ground
and yet correct some of the most fragrant
of the wrongs notoriously suffered by the
| public.