The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-08-20

ment, while immediate action might preju-
dice not only honest stockholders, who
had, in innocence Of all this secret his.
tory, invested in the stock, but also the
general public. A treaty was finally en-
tered into between the senate committee
and the representatives of the road the
committee simply agreed to postpone the
production of their report; the road
agreed to drop Mr.. Gould from the man
agement, to pay no more dividends, and
to run the road in compliance with the
terms of the law. And thus the matter
rests to-day. The road owes the govern
ment 1913 100000 in bonds, on which the
interest is also unpaid, and until this
spring it has never taken the first step
toward providing for the payment of either.
And, what is extraordinary in this story,
the law officers of the government have
never taken measures to compel the road
to comply with the law, nor to enforce
the penalties for failure so to do.
"There are some lessons from this short
chapter in political history which bear
directly on the present campaign. Those
we shall leave our readers to discover for
themselves. 1t is enough for us to sug.
gest to them that there are $33, 800, 900
interested in securing an influence in the
next administration strong enough to
pigeon-hole any proceedings against the
Union Pacific to enforce the payment of
its debts. But we turn to another and
more important lesson.
"The United States government, under
the spur of an enthusiasm for public i'm
provements, has given to the railroads of
this country an empire-land in area
equal to that of the entire original thir-
teen colonies; equal to three times the
total areas of Great Britain and Ireland;
nearly equal to the combined areas of
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri.
These lands are among the richest and
most valuable in the United States their
aggregate value is roughly estimated at
$600,O00,000. This has all been given to
railroad kings. 1t has all been taken
from the people. What proportion of the
net profit resulting from the gift have the
common people received ? The govern
ment has done more. 1t has loaned to a
single railroad corporation over three
hfths OF the entire capital used by it in
the construction of the road, and when it
calls on the corporation to comply with
the terms of the loan and to make some
provision for meeting the interest and
paying the principal, it is fought, at every
step of the way, by vigorous lobby, by
powerful legislative opposition, and by
suspicious and dangerous indifference in
the executive department. These facts
should be known and pondered by Ameri.
can readers, whatever their party atfilia-
tions. Senators Edmunds and Thurman
have set an example which all republicans
and democrats will do we'll to follow, in
uniting to purge the nation of this cor
ruption.
"The English government is managing
its railway system better in this respect
than we are managing ours. 1t has
guaranteed capitalists fair return, five
per cent we believe, on the Indian rail-
ways; the balance of the profits it has
taken itself. And with this balance it
made so large reduction in taxation that
it has been able to abolish the income
tax in India altogether. If the people of
the United States are to furnish the
money with which the great transconti.
mental railways are built, they are en-
titled to both the control and the profits
of the enterprise"