The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-03-24
THE DAILY BULLETIN.
BLACK ON RAILROADS.
His Argument in Favor Of an Ant-Dis-
elimination Freight Bill-How East
ern Railroad Companies Influence
and Control Corrupt Legis-
latures.

~
Ex-Judge Jeremiah s. Black, in the
presence of prominent railroad men
said in a sociable, conversational way:
"There is now" he said, ian irrepres-
sible conflict between railroads and
their adherents on the one side and the
rights of the people to the use Of their
own public highways on the other. l
believe that the Gordon bill ought to
pass, but / don't mean in its present
shape, as there are omissions and mad
vertences about it. When the constitu-
tional provision which this bill propos-
es to enforce was proposed in the con-
vention there was no anmosity or bitter
feeling against railroads. Those cor
porations were well represented and de-
Tended there. Mr.. Cuyler represented
the Pennsylvania Railroad. That cor
poration caused his election. The next
greatest corporation in the State had its
own President on the floor, Mr.. Gowen.
If either of those gentlemen had been
able to point out single letter that was
uniustly harsh or severe upon the rail-
roads it would have been stricken out
by unanimous vote Neither of them
suggested that the rights of the railroads
were about TO be endangered. Ii was
argued there, however, that some of
these railroads, having been chartered
with certain privileges, could make
rates to suit themselves.
A REASONABLE LIMIT TO CHARGES.
III hold that railroad charter with
tout a reasonable limit to charges is void.
The road is not a public highway if the
managers may charge whatever they
please. That was settled as early as
1881 in the first great railroad case that
ever came before the courts--the case
of Bonaparte against the Camden e. Am
boy Railroad Company, To say the
State cannot save the people from such
extortion and fraud is to utter prepos-
ferrous absurdity. By the right of en-
inent domain the State always has the
power TO abate a monopoly, You can
regulate the railroads just as you can
hackdrivers. The opinion of Judge
Waite in the case of Mann against the
State of Illinois is unanswerable and
settles that point completely. Mr..
power with the courts. ! don't know
how that is, but really they are weak
and powerless in any issue that brings
them before the people For every
millionaire they have made thousand
paupers; for every man they've done
favor to they've cheated ten thousand,
and these are the things that will be re-
membered III popular issue, There's
nothing in the Lords Prayer more cor
rect than the seventeenth article of the
Constitution. Does anybody pretend
that railroad companies have right to
manopolize not only railroads but other
business besides and fleece the country?
TIE INFLUENCE OF FREE TICKETS.
"Does anybody believe free tickets q
good thing? believe that any mem
Der of this Legislature could be influence
ed improperly by free ticket These
tickets may be worth to legislators who
are men Of business from 800 to $500
year. Now, would there be any differ
ence in principle if Mr., Robins came up
here with cash enough to 90 around
and give that much money to each
member? While you're at it don't per-
nit any Judge especially any Judge Of
the Supreme Court, to take any such
accommodations / think the judicial
integrity Of the country should be like
Caesar wife--not only chaste but I'M
impeachable, The railroads ask you to
stop short when YOU come TO something
hard for them to bear A iayernkeeper
indicted for keeping disorderly house
knows he's guilty His friends and
customers are about 10 be called up as
witnesses. He knows that he win be
convicted if they all tell the truth. He
has given them many a free drink and
he promises them abundance of free
rum in future if they stop little short
OF telling the whole truth. these rail-
road people think that the whole Com
monwealth was made for them They
tell you that they are going to suffer II
| justice be done Their unlawful profits
are to be curtailed, and that's their OBJ
lection.
CONTEMPT FOR THE CONSTITUTION.
II don't doubt their contempt for the
Constitution is sincere. They've proved
it in many ways A mighty banker be-
fore the Lord came up here from Phila-
delphia to carry through the Legisla-
ture bill that would give the corpora
ton that he represented four millions Of
the States money, to which that corpor-
alton had no more right than the wolf
has to the mutton that it slaughters in
the light of the moon. Certain persons
got little startled at the methods he
adopted. A committee asks him if he
didn't know that corrupt solicitations of
legislators wasvery wrong. No, he didn't
know any such thing. What they ex-
claimed, don't you know that the Con
stitution forbids it, % yes, he replied;
4 know that there's lot Of stuff in the
Constitution about that, but then no.
body cares for the constitution that l
know Of. That was the training he got
on that subject by his masters before he
left Philadelphia, and now his masters
make use Of the same argument against
this bill" Judge Black then read a
paper which he had addressed to the New
York Chamber of Commerce, embody-
ing his views upon certain phases Of dis
elimination. IF you heard or read
Gowen's speech, he proceeded, "you
know how gladly he said that he would
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