Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-04-13
Ul)e fanfaster 1utelli9enfer.
LANCASTER. APRIL Is, 1856.
A Proper Inouiry.


The House has passed resolution,
offered by Mr.. Morrison, raising CON-
xnittee Of seven " to investigate the causes
A. 1extent Of the disturbed condition now
existing in the relations between railroad
corporations engaged in interstate COM
merce and their employees" Mr. Reagan,
Of Texas, thought that it was no more of
the business of Congress to intervene in the
contests between railroads and their en-
ployes than between any other classes of
the people. He seemed to think that the
matter was one for state adjudication, and
that a question of state rights was involved
tn it. Mr.. Randall protested that
while he was strongly in favor of
confning national legislation within
constitutional limits, he was satisfied that
Il was the governments interest to see that
peace and order instead of discomfort
prevailed in the land. Mr.. Curtin de-
clared it was the duty of Congress to in
quire into the unrest of the land, and to
hearken to the appeal of the humblest cit
izen praying protection against wrongs in
flicted upon him. Reed, of Maine, Springer
Of Illinois, and Hiscock, of New York,
agreed that there could be no reasonable
question as to the duty of Congress to lis
ten to such grievances as those now
brought to its notice; Mr.. Reed inquiring
how many representatives OF the people
would turn away from their petitions
and refuse to listen to their wrongs.
Mr.. Morgan, of Alabama, apparently was
the only member to side with Mr.. Reagan !;
and they did not appear in the vote,
the resolution being agreed to without
division.
The sentiment of the House in this mat
ter is that of the country. If any doctrine
Of state rights interferes with an appeal for
redress of wrongs inflicted by rail-
road corporations running across the
state lines, then that doctrine is
not one for the times. 1t might
have been well enough in the stage coach
days to remit the drivers and hostlers to
state jurisdiction, but it will not do in these
days when railroads stretch across all the
state lines of the continent and defy the
local control of each state. The hand that
controls them must evidently be one whose
jurisdiction is co-eytensive with their
system.
Mr.. Morrison, in offering this resolution,
said that the arbitration act just passed by
the House was ''inadequate in its provisi-
ons !" which isvery manifest upon its face.
Why it was passed we cannot imagine, as it
does not meet the evil which it presumably
was designed to reach. 1t provides moth
ing more than method of arbitration of
grievances, both parties being willing
which was privilege both parties had be-
fore Its passage. 1t puts the arbitration
under the auspices of the government,
through officials designated, but provides
no efficient means of securing the arbitra-
tion results. The measure is like, in its
essence, to the one placed by the last legis-
lature in the statute book of Pennsylvania,
at Senator Wallace's instance, and which
has amounted, as we declared it would, to
nothing at all.
The Congress of the United States must
take cognizance of the relations of the rail-
roads to the people; which no state alone
Is ableto handle, because of the obvious
fact that the railroads, running through the
different states and being largely competi-
tors with each other for business, must be
put under the law, that their competition
may be upon equal terms under the law.
Arbitration, as a means to accommodate
employe to employer, is undoubtedly a
thing to be established; but, it must be an
arbitration enforced else there will be no
arbitration, when one party finds advant-
age in refusing the accommodation which
the public good demands. Enforced arbi-
tration is nothing but enforced law; and
we therefore return to the proposition that
laws must be passed by the national author
ity, that is alone capable of enforcing them.
which require railroads and railroad en-
ployes, common carriers and the people, to
respect the right of each other as the laws
define them to be.