National Republican., 1882-12-25
The Railway Power.

nually about six hundred millions of dollars,
the roads The roads cost about two and q
half billions, although by processes well
understood they appear in the railway re-
ports to have cost about twice that amount.
1t is not an eXtravagant calculation to
estimate the profit on the railway business
at about twelve per cent per annum on
the money actually invested. This might he
considered " a fair return on the investment"
which was at one time conceded by the rail-
way managers to be the proper basis for the
rates of fares and freights. 1t might be men
toned that the national, state, and county
subsidies for railway building, in the form of
bonds and lands, greatly reduces the amount
of the aggregate of Investments by indi-
viduals.
The railway is every mans partner in bust
ness, and that, too, on II basis which itself
creates and enforces. The farmer must pay
whatever share of his grain is demanded as
the price of moving the remainder to market.
With the rise of wheat quotations in Liver
pool the cost of transportation rises with as
much precision as water finds its level.
Merchant miner, and manufacturer are
alike at the mercy of the transportation com
panics. The railway magnates affect the price
of what we cat and wear and of the fuel with
which we cook our food and temper the cold
of winter. The basis of railway charges has
been changed from "a fair return on the in
vCstmcnt " to what the traffic will bear"
Whatever will not prohibit production on farm
and in mine is the sum eXaCtcd for transporta-
ton. The iuggle of "watercd " stock makes
the percentage of profit seem to the un-
scrutinizing public not unreasonable Ten
years of agitation on this subject has ended
in nothing. The railway, as every
body's partner, has enabled half
dozen railway kings to put away
hundred millions or so apiece some of which
was certainly more than fair divide the re-
tcntiOn of which surplus among the customers
of railways would have made the distribution
of the profits of the copartnership much nearer
to fair play. State legislatures and state rail
way commissions have wrestled with the prob
lem, but with no useful results. The cham
pions of the people have from time to time
been changed to apologists of the railway com
panics, and the claw of criticism has by some
mysterious magic been soothcd back to its old
place beneath the velvet of friendly and ptlrr-
ing explanation.
.s The chief difficulty in the way of restrain
ing railway abuses has not been the want of
constitutional power to regulate the conditions
under which railway franchises shall be en-
jOyed, or corporate powers exercised, nor have
the powers of persuasion so well known to rail
way attorneys" at state capitals been wholly
answerable for the failure to solve the problem
Even an agreed division of the power lodged
in national and state governments respect
lively, affecting corporations and franchises
under each, would not greatly help to
the desired end of abating the injustice
of the present involuntary partnership
between every citizens business and
the railway. The great obstacle to legislation
lies in the impractcability of regulation and
control of a complicated business like rail
roading by legislators chosen for terms of one
or two years, and selected without any regard
to a knowledge of this one subject The
obstacle to control by commissions is in the
difficulty in selecting men who will not he
either arbitrary or corrupt. The railway
companies have now for their main and un-
answcrable formula that control should 90
with ownership
The time will doubtless come in the far dis
tant future when all railway tracks will be
public property, and the use of them open to
for of a certain rate per car per mile, and adj
herence to the time tables and other regula.
tions established by law and enforced by
government agents State and national au.
thority could be blended for this purpose rs
they now are in the use of county tunpikcs
as post roads 1t may be, then, that until that
remote by and by the control of railways must
remain with their ownerships. But this must
be reciprocated. The time has come when
the great railway managers must learn
that the government of this nation
and of the states can only be such
as the people consent to. If rail
irGy control must go with railway owner
government ownership. If the government
must not interfere with the railway business
then the railway corporations must not inter
fcre with the government business. If con
grcssmen and state Legislators are not t.
usurp the functions of railway directors, ther
railway directors must not select members o
congress and state legislatures. If small poll
ticians, with no resources except the con
iidence reposed in them by retainers whC
want place. are dangerous to our liberties, al
many contend, what shall be said of thai
county convention of each party, has its leader
and trained followers? At every state con
vention of any party with any hope of sue
cess the struggle is between this giant force
and those who dare to resist it, The remedy
for this sort of railway monopoly" is simple
Let the republican masses, in their primary
meetings and in the county conventions, which
are nearest to their direct influence, speak
out against this unfrendly interference
Let them say to republican statesmen
and political leaders that they do not intend
to allow the political power of the nation tC
be welded bya single material interest. Let
them recall the fate of the democratic SAMP,
son shorn Of his locks by the DELILAH OF
slavery in the interest of cotton. Let them
warn the railway power that it is safer in the
hands Of the peoples government than it can