Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-19
REGuL.arLNG RlrLROADS.


is too often looked to as the panacea for
all ills just as some nostrum is poured
into the stomach to relieve physical ills,
when all that is necessary is to allow ma
ture to take its course.
There has been for many years deter
mined effort to apply legislation to the
manner of conducting railroads, and in
many States something has been done in
that direction. Minnesota has proved no
exception to the rule, and at every session
Of the legislature there is more or less
clamor for some legislation regulating
railroads.
Railroad companies, like all aggregated
capital formed into corporations, are not
always agreeable in the transaction of
business. The officers and employees often
shield themselves behind the intangible
corporate existence, to do or refuse to do
what they would act very differently about
if it was personal matter. But they
should be considered and treated from
broader standpoint than that of individual
annoyances. They should be viewed as
important adjunots in building up and
developing country-in fact, as posi-
tive essential to such development. Men
cannot be expected to supply money
to construct railroads and have the con-
troll of their capital so invested, placed in
the hands of others to manage. The mo-
ment you establish such precedent, that
moment you will drive capital from max
ing such investments.
No one can visit the great money centers
of the East without fully realizing the tim
idity of capital and the Importance of
throwing no distractions in the way,if it is
| to be secured at all. The business of the
| country is at this very moment paralized
by the threatened legislation of congress
and the various States. Capital is not
obliged to invest in Western rail
roads. There are plenty of opportunities
| for capitalists to use their means, and if
We are to secure the aid of their means in
making our development, they must be
assured of fair play. Minnesota is one of
the States which especially needs outside
capital for development. Our resources
are immense, but if they are to be devel-
oped by the slow process which prevailed
prior to the era of railroads, we simply
delay for century what a liberal policy
| can secure in ten years. In an old State
like Massachusetts, where nearly every
post village is traversed by a railroad, and
where there IS little remaining for capital
to seek, it may not be inju-
rious to apply the Legislative
regulator" In Minnesota it is simply
blocking the wheels of progress and turn
ing back the tide of advancement to at
tempt to confscate the capital we are in
viting to come to our State. The existing
laws, if duly enforced, cover all that is
needed to protect the public, and at the
same time they are not harsh and repel-
liant to capital. The railroads cannot be
said not to be bearing fair share of the
public burdens, for the taxes paid by those
corporations will, within three years, if
they are encouraged to continue
their development, pay the
entire expenses of the State
government and support all our public in
situations. They are regularly disbursing
over three hundred thousand dollars per
month for labor in the state, independent
of construction expends. They are spend
ing five times as much or more every
month, as the State expense in two years
for immigration purposes.
Let any man in middle life go back in
his mind to his boyhood, and note the time
when railroads were only constructed
where population was sufficiently dense to
support them; let them note the slow, snail
pace growth of the towns and cities OF
those days, and then let him compare the
progress of to-day whore capital pushes
the railroads out in advance of population
and brings the people after it, instead of
awaiting their coming. Let him note the
western towns and cities that
spring up as if by magic, the
result of the railroad development
and then ask himself whether he would
condemn his children and his children's
children to the slow progress which was
the order OF the day in his childhood, or
whether he would prefer to invite capital
and progress to continue the era of pros
1 fOAANJ AOW oO oPANAOuoAy bOSuus
We are surprised that so intelligent a
body as the joint railroad committees of
! the Minnesota legislatures should be in
ciined to indulge in any more railroad leg
islstiye tinkering. It is surprising that
| they should deem it advisable 10
add to the burdens of the state three COM
missioners, where one is ample. If they
will accspt good advice they viii proceed
no farther, but will plumpIy state that
they favor development, and will trust to
the natural laws Of trade to protect the
public. The bidding up of the State
helps every Minnesotian. Legislation to
prevent such result correspondingly
damages every one.
goose that laid golden eggs was killed
by greedy person with view of securing
the eggs all at once.
The greedy person was, afterwards, sorry
he did it.
JOURNALISTIC.