St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-07-28
The Great American Danger
[FrOm the Boston Pilot. ]

o. From the Boston Pilot.l
Much as has been said of the wrongs
endured by labor at the hands of the
great railroad mOnopOlies, it is a fact
that the business men of the country
have suffered infinitely more, not mere
ly in those sudden and unreasonable
advances, but in the arbitrary and,
from legitimate business view, utter
ly uncalled-for changes constantly
made in the rates of transportation.
Nobody is safe in buying or selling any
article so long as its value at the date
of delivery may be artiticially enhanced
or deprecated by sudden change in
the tariff of freights. No business in
stinct avails when the shrewdest calcu
lations may be upset at the last mo-
ment by total alteration in values
caused by INSCRIPTIONS bargain of set
of railroad rogues. The merchant do
| ing business on basis of intelligent
foresight may lose all his investments,
may be even totally ruined through
the unexpected combination of specu-
lators combined to wreck this prosper
Gus road, or bolster up that rotten cor
poration. Business suffers, labor suf-
fers, the whole country is injured by
the Vaccinations of half a dozen ras-
Gals who have accumulated millions of
! ill-gOtten money in the same way.
What is the remedy The ablest
iinanciers of the country, outside of the
gang of bandits who have caused all
the mischief, are asking themselves
this question and seem unable to find
an answer.
When Il vulgar rutfian. like Jesse
James, stops a railroad train and rObs
the passengers of a few hundreds Ol
thousands, the people turn out to hunt
him down with intent to suspend him
from the nearest tree. Even the head
of a great commonwealth does not con
slider it illegitimate to commission i
hired bravo to rid the community OF
the bold rObber; and public opinion
while regretting the necessity, does
not too harshly condemn the act. But
no indignant mob pursues with a hal
ter Jay Gould or William Vanderbilt
when they have hidden Il whole nation
stand and deliver its millions. NJ
governor or president proclaims then
outlaws and promises immunity to hin
who shoots them down at sight. 1e
if Jesse James was public nuisance
to a small community, Gould and Van
derbilt are colossal robbers who are in
finitely more harmful, on account o
their greater capability for evil. Jess
James was only a solitary picaroon Ol
! the ocean of travel. Gould and Van
derbilt and Sage and Field are tn
buccaneering fleets which prey on tn
commerce of a nation. They are pi
:. rates in everything but courage am
the rude Justice which made pirate
honest in their dealings with each 9th
er.
= Society must devise way of legiti
= mately eXterminating these buccaneers
= or society will have to find an illegitl
. mate way. "FOes to the human race
4 must be written against the names G
those unscrupulOus robbers. "COmbi
!, nations" and "cOrners" and legalize
, rascality in general have been able t
- create unnatural want in land of nat
} ural prosperity. The bounteous han
a vests of God have been turned by II
= paciOus rascals to their own sole pro
v its. Let those harvests fail for but on
=" season; let natural want be superadC
- ed to the artificial misery caused h
~ the railroad autOcrats, and woe to theS
u u men. A bread riot in New York-an
u" it would not take much to raise it
would find its first objective point
the million dollar mansions insolentl
, raised by the magnates of the grei
=. city. The railroad milliOnaires reckO
y on doubtful support if they fame
IL Il that they will he aided in the defen:
:" of their ill-gotten gains or thsir wOrtl
u = less lives by the law-abiding citizel
- whom they have recklessly plundert
=. for years. Fisk, at once the wise
y and foolishest of the lot, was yet b
- loved by his employees. Those wi
y have succeeded him make enemi'
& alike of the rich and poor. In Il col
= flict, which heaven avert between la
and order, the GOulds and Vanderbilt
o' would find themselves where they hay
~ ~, chosen to place themselves, alone
~ their seltishneSs, and face to face wit
u the injustice they have invoked.
/" The unnatural and unjust dispens
N ton which allows n few men to pr,
upon IA nation under the protection
ie the law cannot last forever. If Il
VI monopOlists were wise they would
" foremost III seeking an amendment
~ the laws which have allowed it, and
d nN prudently retiring with the fruits
- their spoils. As it is, they court d
- struction, which only continuance
= phenomenally rich harvests, and co
~ " sequent national prosperity, can ave
49, or defer.