West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-04-27
RAILROADS CONTROLLED BY
BROKERS.

float any more railroad securities.
They have so often swindled those
who trusted their representations
that the investing public will not
deal with them. Hence their pres
ent policy is to conceal their con-
nection with any enterprise, to hire
respectable fgure-heads to act as
decoy ducks.
The truth is that the least repu-
table of Wal! street gamblers have
gotten control of our highways and
the arteries of commerce are in the
custody of men who ought to be in
Jail. Fights between rivals in the
same company, or efforts by the Off
Gals of one system to obtain ma
jority Of stock in some competing
road, now and then make an active
market, but legitimate brokerage in
railroad securities is thing of the
past.
1t is astonishing, the body of the
people do not rise in their might and
rescue their highways from Wall
street gamblers. No one, who
thinks, can fail to see that it is i'm
possible for legitimate business to
thrive while the avenues of trade
are under the secret manipulation of
the most INSCRIPTIONS gang of men
this country has ever produced.
The rank and file do not understand
the situation, and it is doubtful
whether they ever will understand
it until wealth has become so con-
centrated that the unorganized
masses will be as powerless for re-
sistance as were the slaves in the
South. = 1t is already common re-
mark that the railroad influence will
certainly crush any man OF real
ability who refuses to stand silent
while his neighbors are robbed.
Such a man is lied about and hound
ed by the entire swarm of knaves
and fools who are content to gather
crumbs that fall from the tables of
millionaires. A man of recognized
ability, who can be neither bribed
nor intimidated, it he refuses to
wear the collar, is so vilified and
misrepresented that the masses, de-
ceived by the clsmor, distrust him
and turn against him. Indeed, it is
scarcely an exaggeration to say,
that the machinery of party is used
with no object except to exclude
from Legislatures and Congress the
few men who, having studied mod
ern railway methods, are competent
and willing to protect the public
against the schemes to plumber
them. Railroad managers prefer as
candidates men of good social posi-
tion. who are unaggressive and who
have not studied these subjects.
Such men are easily persuaded to
let things go as they are. Such men
mean well, but never accomplish
any measure of material benefit to
their constituents they are easily
induced to favor a policy of non
action. These railroad-managing
Wall street gamblers fear nothing
on earth 80 much as a legislative in
vestigation conducted by man OF
brains, who thoroughly understands
the subject end who cannot be ST.
/ fenced. There is nothing so much
needed, especially in West Virginia,
as a ventilation of the methods of
railroad management Those of US
who have given this matter suffi
cient investigation to deal with it
intelligently are all marked men;
we are on the black list of the rail
road magnates and their lobby are
instructed to exclude US from the
public ear. 1t is indeed most dis
tressing thought that if a man of
real ability refuses to wear the col
lar, then no matter how sincere his
purpose, no matter how great his in
tegrity, no matter how many works
of his brain he has piled up to at
test his capacity, he is as inexora-
bly, excluded from the honors Oflife
as though he were Benedict Ar
mold; while on the other hand, the
men who wear the collar, who never
lift finger in behalf of the people,
and who betray the masses to gain
railroad influence, are the idols OF
popular favor and hold every place
of trust or profit. To put this mat
ter in a nut shell; ifa man consents
to wear the railroad collar, there are