Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-01-23


the country by an insight into what it
escaped from by the November election.
THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
BILL.
The man who invented the phrase ''p0p-
ular elamor,'' invented a weapon which
has been more effectively used against the
rights of the people than any in the Eng
lish language. We say has been, because
the people year by year, are becoming less
cowed by phrases and more bold in insist
ing that their rights shall be respected and
their wrongs righted Popular clamor of
this day is the herald of the ballot-bnx COM
ing to sit in judgm ent. But there is one
class of law makers removed to so safe a
distance from the b alIot- box that it takes
long time to reach it; it is the law makers
of the U. y. Senate. To get at them the
people have to eli NIB over legislature, and
then leap six We ars' term before they can
lay their hands OF them. Under the shelter
of this, the Sens to as a. body and indivi-
dually, plays come fantastic tricks. 1t
boldly wlthstaD DIS a popular measure from
! the House and speaks of popular camor."
1t is doing 81, now in the matter of the
Inter State Commerce bill. Now the peo-
pie may be, and often are, wrong; wrong
about whai; 1t is that really troubles them;
wrozp; about what is the best cure for it.
ana wrong about the best measure to eff
feet the cure; but there is this thing about
esle people that the politician may always
depend Oh they knoso aohen then are hurt
{ and when they raise an cutlery from suf-
| fering. call it popular clamor or what not,
| they mean that it should be known that
they do kr low it. The Interstate Com
| merce bill Is in response TO no new cry of
the people, it is in answer to wall of
long dur, alton. Nor is there anything that
Is unpre ;edented in the principle involv-
in t;ls viii Massachusetts, has had just
such "a law. for the Cover nement of the
rafir0a Dis within her territory aud which
she CO uld rea Oh. Her law prohibited rail-
road from charging more for short haul
than it did for long haul which included
the shorter. This is exactly the Reagan
bill. How did it work Where the law
ul..s violated, the State Railroad Commits
s. oners. on cnmplai of the parties, called
The attention of thu railroad 50 the fact
and The railroad Welded + cree. Not "a
case came intG co1ri. md 20 explanation
nf th's s-neotn working of the law, Sana-
snr Hoac Of h Il S ate. said: TIE exist
p. e. II tFe III ~ rpon fire statute book
sud f'-e f.Gf hat if tha Suggestion Of Tire
reilYt-a6 ctmni ssi0refs uas not comp'ied
with further action might be he'd .had con
$ iaArai3ie ff=ct IN causing their recommen-
81 ions 80 he acceded to- 20 much for
/: az preceseDt and he mode in which such
= law wilt work if enforced Now comes the
G nestion, have the people suffered any
real injuries from the present mode of
railroad manaeement or are these injuries
imaginary In the first place the railroads
! of this country are carrying and irving to
| pay dividends on four thousand millions OF
I dollars worth of watered stock. They are
| carrying the same sort of burden that that
great monopoiistic corporation, the West
ern Union, is essaying to bear, and to
carry this the roads are trying to collect
money peaceably if they can, forcibly
if they must. To do this they do
not hesitate to take farm or a
city by the throat. They use their
power without scruple and without mer-
cy They build up or pull down cities
that are in their way. 1t is not long since
the citizens of Columbus, small town i'll
Nebraska, on the Union Pacific railroad,
attempted to secure another road. The
Union Pacific at once made the car rate
from New Y ork to that town $500, while
the car rate to San Francisco, six hundred
| miles farther, was but $780, This, because
the little town had made an effort to
escape from a monopoly Now the simple
fact that this thing could occur, is ample
proof that some sort of relief is needed by
the people, The railroads of the day are
not built to build up the country along
their line. Any one can see that by look
ing at the small towns scattered along the
line with all the rates, rebates, and ad-
vantages made in favor of the gigantic
cities at either end. Railroad companies
and managers are no longer confined to run
ming their road; they are in every business
that can be named which lies near enough
to their line for freights to control them
They open mine Or close it; they prosper
factory or impoverish it; they swell the
| wealth of a locality in which they are in
terested and skin one to the bone in
which they have no interest. Railroads of
this day are gigantic, trading, specializing,
and gambling machines. and are freely
used for that purpose. 1t was but lately
that an intelligent gentleman showed in
the columns of this paper, how railroad
rates of this locality operate against the
interest of Staunton in favor of Richmond
and Baltimore, and now we find this para
graph in the Charlottesville Chronicle:
''We have heard of merchant in Staunton,
who, finding out that freights could be sent
from Cincinnati to Richmond, and then back
direct to Staunton, in the habit of ship
ping all his goods that way until the railroad
found out his ''little ganle'' and forbade it. 1t
is such scandals as that, that an Interstate
commerce bill should put an end to forever"
Now the fact that this thing could be
done at all is sufficient warrant for ma
tiopal legislation that shall go to the root
of this evil, not in Staunton alone but
everywhere. Why the railroads concede