Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1883-12-20
THURSDAY. DECEMBER, 90, 1888.
The Railroads and the People

The railroad commission hav-
Ing cited the managers of the
Tennessee roads to appear before
them at Nashville, as the commits
sion Was about to ''revise' thei1
rates Maj. Fink, for the
EFT, Va. g. Ga, road, and others
fer the other roads involved, pro.
cured a restraining order from
Judge John Baxter, and the wal
between the State and the rail-
roads may now be said to be in a
fragrant stage.
ssThe roads rely for a permanent
Injunction against the State on a
clause in their charters fixing
maximum tariffs on freight and
travel-on our own road not to ex-
coed five cents per mile for tray
ell, 35 cents per hundred pounds
on heavy articles and ten cents
per cubic foot on articles OF meas
urement for each n hundred
miles.
Charter guarantees are the So
called .'vested rights" of current
legal slang, and while the claims
set up under them may serve to
procure dilatory legal proceeding
<l,nu ara not "nrf1 N Hn g
absurd for anyone to talk about
such a thing Is Q real binding
contract" with a sovereign state.
It can do nothing that it cannot
nndo at pleasure, whether right or
wrong, just or unjust. Those who
bargain with a sovereign power
must look to that sense of justice
which may be ever appealed to
with effect for the honest per-
Torrance of the states promise.
No court can say to it, perform
or suffer-" for the good and suffi-
cient reason that no creature is as
great as a creator. Ultimately
railroads will be owned and oper>
ated by either the state or nation
al government and every conflict
between the two only hastens
that, as we deem it, desvirably
contamination. Courts may stand
between for d while, but if ncc>
essary to vindicate the doctrine
of popular supremacy the people
will let out judicial and other
blood in, quantity sufficient to con-
vince them-and blood is a great
persuader-that the people are
supreme.
So much for rights and doc
trines, but we don't live by rights
and doctrines alone. The rail-
road Legislation at the last legiss
latiye session was unwise and too
extreme! The creation of a COM
mission having authority to in
and to treat with rail
roads was about all that was re-
CURED at present. If we had all
the railroads In Tennessee that
we need or can have, the estab-
Iishment of a commission with
power to choke a defiant railroad
INTO submission would have been
veil enough; but the truth is that
We have few railroads and require
many more, and for this reason
We should have been disposed to
oster railroad building instead of {
raining the few 1--WE shave. All
ak against ''monopolies' in s
at this jupcture is the !
ant of demagogues and the chat
er of idiots. 1t would be money
n our pockets to grant exclusive
privileges to railroads, manufac-
ures, bridge companies, turn {
likes, canal builders and steam I
'Oat lines. Up to a comparatively b
ecent period II railroad compa. S
les charged maximum rates on t
and travel, and yet we e
and our property be- d
anne more valuable by proximity b
D the railroad lines. Without Fl
allr0ads TO move IL crops, our d
MY means Of revenue from the k
inside world wcnld be live stock u
nd tobacco. We could market b
lose things because the stock C.
,uld walk to market and tobac- Il
J, nogsheads could be hitched up c.
nd pulled over the mountains. ST
The people have no cause to a
with the present railroad te
engagements. Without compul
on they have reduced rates and III
own in many waystheir desires to lie
rye the country through which I'll
run as well as to profit them bl
Ives. Three cents a mile, we bt
ink, is as low a rate for local ef
vel as can be found anywhere VI
the UnitedssStates. Indeed, we ;,
ew of only n country IN On
Itch it is less, and that is in II
on government railways. 20,
& is probably true that there is We