The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-03-04
Railroad Regulation.

ture OF that state not to attempt the
regulation of rates by law on its great
railway, the Maine Central. In refer
ence to the particular case in hand it
may be that the Farmer is right. The
Maine Central presents the almost
unique spectacle among railroads of
being generally popular with the peo-
pie. 1t is managed by men willing to
recognize the rights of the people, be-
fore being compelled to realize the
power of the people. They listen with
respect to all complaints, and, at least
in many cases, have reformed errors
that on other roads have grown into
gross abuses. One of the great causes
of railroad unpopularity-perhaps the
greatest--is the contemptuous manners
of railroad men towards their poorer
customers, and especially towards farm
ers, who are supposed to be unable to
help themselves. We wish Vermont
had as good railroads, in this respect,
as Maine. OF course the much greater
competition of water routes explains a
part of this complaisance of Maine rail-
road men, as compared with those of
states not so favorably situated. But,
aside from what may justly be dis
counted in that way, it seems, from our
own observation, and from what we
have learned by talking with citizens
of Maine, that the officials of the Maine
Central, from the highest to the lowest,
have proper sense of their true rela-
tons to the public, and do not delude
themselves with the notion that a rail
road man is god, to question whose
acts is a daring impiety, deserving of
immediate and exemplary chastisement.
But the Farmer, in its zeal, goes
good deal too far. 1t claims that I'M
der no circumstances should the people
exercise their right to regulate the bust
ness of common carriers. 1t twice
states that misfortune befell the western
farmers who undertook railway regula-
ton. 1t seems to carry the idea that
such sacrilege must inevitably subject
the guilty citizen to retributive justice.
We doubt the fact. Perhaps the writer
of the Farmers article may remember
Captain Nat Kimball, so many years
master of steam vessels on the route
from the Kennebec to Boston. A pas
senger with him once tried to beat the
boat by telling the clerk that he had
paid his fare to the captain. "Show
me the man," said old Nat. to the
clerk You are the person who paid
his fare to me, l believe" eyes, sir"
81 think you gave me ten-dollar
BILL" eyes, SIR" And didn't 1 give
you your change all in half-dollars?"
eyes, sir" {" Mould like to see the
! hdlueS." The man made no further OPP
position to the clerks demand, and we
should like to see the Farmer produce
its evidence that the western farmers
have injured themselves, as whole,
by their railroad legislation. No doubt a
good many of them, as individuals, have
been made to feel the effects of rail-
road spite, but the railroad gods have
been made to know so effectually that
there is g a God in Israel " bigger than
they are, that the beginning of popular
agitation against an injustice of theirs
is usually sufficient to ensure reform.
The western railroads know who is
boss.
The Farmer says, with conspicuous
truth, that "no class or aggregation of
classes, however numerous or powerful,
can form themselves into groups for the
purpose of controlling the business of
others without destroying the basis and
underlying principles of commercial
life, and thereby precipitating their
own ruin in common with the interests
they attack"
This is truth that railroad men, no
less than the farmers, the business men,
or any other class of the people, should
study and understand. The railroads,
by their combinations and pools :" for
the purpose of controlling the business
of Others" do indeed thereby "precip-
itate their own ruin in common with
the interests they attack" If the
managers of railroads could be made to
understand this, they would have little
difficulty in understanding why some OF
our railroads have been such poor
property. They, as rule, despise the
small customer, and show their despite
by prohibitory tariffs against all small
shipments. Thus they cut off trade
that may be a little troublesome, bu
would yield good profit, to encourage
other branches that do not yield new
dollar for an old one to stakeholder OF
Observation-Disclosures profitable it may
be to managers and officials.
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