The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-06-23
For THE CLARroN.l
The Railways and the Republic

srhe Railways and the Republic
4 work has recently appeared undel
the above title which should be care
fully read and pondered bv every vote
in the land 1t is divided into eleven
chapters as follows:
/. The problem of railway domination
>. The years of discrimination.
5. The history of a commercial crime
4. The law and the railways.
.. Public Obligation and corporate
practices.
8. The pooling policy.
z. The fictitious element in railway
policy.
5. Competition versus combination.
| 9. The discussion of remedies.
10. The public highway
| IL. Corporations in politics.
Under each of these heads the indie
faugable author brings together a2pro-
pirate facts and statistics of an impor-
tant and interesting character, and then
| by process of sound reasoning and
logical deduction, reaches his conelu-
sions. which are any thing but compli-
mentary to railroad officials and million
aires.
The benefits secured to mankind and
the unparalleled development of the
material resources of this country, Sc
cured by the rise of the railway system,
are fairly conceded by the writer But
he says there is reverse to the picture
which the eulogists do not show, and
which is presented by the abuses and
demoralizing tendencies which have ac-
companied the building up of the i'm
mense railway corporations of the coun-
try. These abuses and demoraliziDg ten
denotes are dwelt upon at length, and
clearly and forcibly stated, and the right
and duty of the States and of Congress
to interfere for their alienation and cor
rection are also insisted upon and EN-
forced. The views of this able writer,
IT would seem, are directly in conflics
with the decision of our Supreme Court,
to the effect that railroad charter fix
Ing maximum OF rates that the railway
is authorized to charge, constitutes a
binding contract between the CORPORA
ton and the State, which is provided by
the constitutional provision, that mo
State shall pass any law impairing the
obligation of contracts" The true doc |
trine on this subject, and that which it |
is confidently believed the Supreme |
Court of the United States will sustain,
is, thai railroads, as public highways, |
are so affected with a public interest |
that as to their charges, there can be, by |
legislation, no contract and no IRE. |
pealable law. Legislation touching gov |
ermental subjects involving public in
terests, are necessarily public laws, and |
as to all public laws, every succeeding |
Legislature possesses the same jurisdie- |
ton and powers with respect to them as
its predecessors.
This writer admits 'That corporate |
power, as 1T is now exercised, is a stand |
ing danger to popular integrity and re-
publican freedom; that it Is eorrupting |
the machinery of Government and per |
verting it from an agency of the people !
to an agency of the corporations" and |
that Republican Government is attack |
ed, in the center of its life, by the per. |
sistent dishonesty and corruption with |
which these aggregations of greed and |
wealth have defiled our political sys-
tem." He adds, "The methods by |
which corporate interests control politi. |
cal action may be classified broadly in |
two great divisions. The first includes |
the election or appointment of repre- |
sentatives of the railways to public |
trusts in which they can secure the cor
porate interests The second covers |
the use of their immense pecuniary re-
sources in downright treachery, or indi- |
rect influence, of those already holding |
such trusts"
An error prevalent with many is, that |
supervision of railroads |
would wholly supercede State supervis- |
ion.
There is no doctrine more universally |
held by the courts, than that Congress |
had in no way interfered with freights |
State, and in this particular Mississippi |
has been greatly oppressed. High rail !
road charges have operated as an en- |
barge, upon the transportation of agri
cultural products from one county in |
the State to another, as well as upon |
the transportation and use of the natu- |
raj fertilizers. For the transporta ton |
of timber, too, of every kind within the |
limits of the State her agents have |
been always made to pay the most ex
orbitant prices. These extortions State |
laws can alone reach, and therefore if |
Congress should ever act on this subject, |
to the full extent OF its constitutional |
powers, still State railroad supervision |
will also be necessary.
In its concluding chapter, this book |
sounds this note of warning:
eff the railways go on as they have
begun, if they continue to purchase leg |
isators, to count seats in Congress, as
their property, and to nominate judges
to the higher courts; if they continue to
warp legislation to the support of rail
way supremacy; if they continue to
erect artificial barriers to the free 0per-
alton of great industries, and to concen-
trate the profits of commerce by their
fayors to the privileged few; if they
continue to secure the enforcement of
laws which protect their privileges, and
to nullfy those which restrict them; if
they delay and prevent the passage of
laws to regulate them and to retain their
power, and cozen the public with decep-
tive measures-in word, if all the fea-
lures which now mark the influence of
great corporations in politics are main
tanned and perpetuated, in defiance of
efforts to retain them by plausible
means, the result will inevitably be, that
one day their injustice and usurpation
will be punished by revolt of the
classes they have wronged, beside which
the French Revolution will seem an
equitable and peaceful reform
SUPE.ivIsIoNIsT.