Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-18
COMMUNICATED.
ARE RAILROADS EVILS ?

Work They Have Accomplished, and
Their Right to Grow and Prosper
without Restrictions.
| Perhaps every sane man in the country
| would unhesitatingly answer this ques-
tion in the negative; and yet, if one lis
tened to the murmurings and observed
the manGuverings against them, the in
stitution of State commissions to sit in
judgment upon their earnings, and the
menace Of national usurpation concealed
in the words, "RegulatiOn Of Interstate
| Commerce." it might be believed that
/ they had all combined to suppress indus
try-had consolidated into one gigantic
! tyranny to Cypress the people. subvert the
| government and sack the country.
| Strange that while the mighty progress OF
| the United States in the last twenty years,
| the like of which was never before seen
! in the world, is universally attributed to
| her wonderful railroad enterprise, there is
| a concentrated effort being made among
| the politicians-thOse restless agitators
| and favor seekers who cannot live save
upon the inharmonies of the peOple-tO
render the latter hostile to the very lnsti-
| tuition to which they owe the present high
| degree of national prosperity. Nearly
| half the States OF the Union would have
| remained territories to this day. inhabited
| only by rowing tribes of savages, but for
| the railroads; and California, Oregon and
Washington on the Pacific might have
continued as distant from the seat of gov
| eminent as the kingdom of Great Britain,
! or might have formed themselves into a
! separate republic in spite of the great
military power of the Eastern States.
The conquest of the South by the North
would have been impossible without the
I = A.. l.
| wOnld ever have marched further south
| than the northern boundaries of Tonnes
| see and North Carolina with the old meth
/ DDS of transportation, and the sire ans of
| immigrants which have multiplied new
| States wOald scarcely yet have crossed
| the Mississippi river.
But. through their instrumentality, not
/ only has the Union swelled to thirty-eight
/ great States, the most prosperous on the
| globe, but by the same means the States
/ have been cemented together in a COM
pact, indissOluble body, and natiOnaliZed
/ by cOntiguity and community of inter-
| est, which, after all, must finally decide
| the mOmentOus question of the perpetuity
/ of the Union.
Great empires in all former ages have
/ broken up into petty states, as seen on
| the maps of the present day, not so much
for the want of cOntigulty by nature, as
| that afforded by art facilities of inter-
| course. whereby community OF interest is
/ created. Such facilities, by creating COM
mon interests, not only bind together re-
mote sections of an empire, but they also
/ bind together differing nations and en-
| pires in bonds of friendship generated
/ through their common interests. To the
| same source we are indebted for the de-
! sire of peace among warlike communities
and the growth of prosperity in peaceful
nations. 1t has ever been found among
all nations that the classes of people least
/ inclined to war and most favorable to
peace, were those engaged in remunera-
| tive industry. These, however warlike
/ in character, favor war only when the
/ profits of their trade, or the body of their
| wealth are endangered. DiscOrd and tur-
/ bulence are dangerous, as war is destruct-
/ i've of both, and hence, very brave nations
! have often yielded the most abject and
/ cowardlv submission to tyranny and op-
preston so long as the bulk of their es-
| tates were permitted to remain intact;
but have at once rebelled and overthrown
the oppressive governments the moment
attempt was made by tax or otherwise to
! plumber their estates.
Thus we see in history that the Neither
lands, then the most prosperous and en-
lightened country in the world, submitted
to the unparalleled cruelties of Philip and
AIva for years, though the terrOrs of the
scaffOld, the stake and the playing rod
reigned in every city and the gallOws at
| every gate and crOss-rOad. 1t is YariOusly
estimated that from $4,000 to 100000 lives
were here sacrificed to religious fanati-
cism, and yet the people remained loyal
| to the King of Spain, under whose orders
the Duke of Alva daily butchered them.
! The land was indeed shrouded
i'm gloom, industry paralysed as never be-
! fore or since, and every avenue of escape
from the country crowded with artisans,
| mechanics and labOrers to enrich other
countries with their skill and experience;
but the property holders of the Neither
lands remained and submitted, in the hope
| of preserving their estates, until the
"BlOody Duke" formulated his famous tax
system. and ordered the collection of his
| universally ridiculed ''tenth penny" This
| was the signal for revolt. Tyranny had
| already doomed every head, it now at
tempted to seize evory estate, and the re-
suit was the Dutch Republic.
So in all ages-in prosperity men are
inclined to peace, IN adversely war; and
as communities are held together by CON-
mon interests to constitute a state or en-
pire. so also may states and empires be
drawn together and bound irrevOcably to
peace and friendship by Interviewing and
fostering those sentiments and institu-
tions which produce that affinity we may
denominate community of interest.
| Among THESE luollluliOHo IdlIOduo
stand immeasurably in advance of every
other. BY telegraph we may talk and
svmpathize as well with the nations as
our own people in a few minutes, but by
railroads we visit them in a few hours,
shake them warmly by the hand, mingle
| with. encourage them and strengthen
| friendship: or, if need be, precipitate an
avalanche of armed legions to preserve
law and order. If perfection Of the
weapons of war is to narrow down and
! shallow the stream of human blood,
made to flow necessarily from this
source, the institution .t Of railroads nds
| through the facilities they furnish for
crushing insubordination, for their pros
perity, nay. their very existence depends
upon peace and industry, but through
the mutual interests they build up, the
sentiments of friendship they engender,
the powers of industry they set free, the
grandeur they confer upon the nation,
/ and the immortal glory with which they
| crown the civilization of the age.
The greatest of all modern agents IN the
1 fhoU nn1h0HV tho at.