The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-19

confded to a corporation newly char
tered.
None of these agents-neither the
canal commissioners nor the State
Receiver, nor any corporation that
went before or came after, had the
slightest proprietary right or title to
the railroads themselves. To say that
they had would be as proposterous as
to assert that township roads are the
private property of the supervisors
A RAILROAD BUILT BY AUTHORITY OF
THE STATE, IN NO SENSE PRIVATE
PROPERTY.
The legal relations existing between
the State and the persons whom she
authorizes to supervise her highways
was somewhat deliberately discussed
by the Supreme Court of Pennsyl-
vania in the case of the Erie and N.
E. Il. r. Go. Us. Casey e Casey, PIP.
3O7-324) 1t was there determined
that a railroad built by authority OF
the State for the general purpose of
commerce is a public highway, and in
no ems private property-that a cor
poration authorized to rvm 1t as q servant
ofthe State as much as an officer legally
appointed to do any other public duty,
as strictly confined by the laws, and
as liable to be removed for transgres.
sing them.
All the judges concarred in this
opinion. The two who dissented from
the judgment did so on the technical
ground that certain circumstances,
which would have estopped the State
in a judicial proceeding disarmed the
Legislature of the power to repeal
Neither they nor any other judge in
this country, whose authority is worth
a straw, ever denied the doctrine for
which l have here cited that case,
though it may have been sometimes
overlooked, ignored, or perchance
evaded. This principle and no other
was the basis of the decision in Penn
sylvania and all the other States, that
cities and counties might issue bonds
or their money and tax their people
to aid in building railways. because
they were public, highways.-EDs.
The Supreme Court of the United
States has affirmed it in scores of
cases. 1t was so universally acknowl-
edged that the convention of 1873 in
corporated it into the Constitution as
a part of the fundamental law. l do
not know upon what foundation more
solid than this any great principle of
Jurisprudence was ever established in
a free country. When in addition you
consider the reason of the thing, and
the supreme necessity of it for the
purpose of common justice, it seems
like a sin and a shame and a scandal
to oppose it.
RAILROAD M CANAL CORPORATIONS ARE
UBLIC AGENTs;-HoLD THEM HARD TO
THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES.
It being settled that the railroads
and canals belong of right to the State
for the use of the people, and that the
corporations who have them in charge
are mere agents to run them for the
owners, it will surely not be denied
that all proper regulations should be
made to prevent those agents from be.
traytng their trust. The wisdom is
very plain of those provisions in ou1
Constitution which put them on a
level with other public servants, and
forbid them to prostitute their func,
tions to purposes merely mercenary,
or to engage in any business which
necessarily brings their. private inter.
ests into conflict with their public
duty. Seeing the vast magnitude OF
the affairs entrusted to them, and the
terrible temptation to which THEN
cupidity is exposed, it is certainly
necessary that you hold them to theil
responsibilities, and hold them hard
THOSE CORPORATIONS DEN THAT THEY
OWE M RESPONSIBILITY TO THE
STATE.
But, on the other hand, the corpor
atoms deny that they owe any respon
sibility to the State, more than indi
viduals engaged in private business
They assert that the management oil
the railroads being a mere speculation
of their own, these thoroughfares Of
trade and travel must be run for their
interest without regard to public
right. If they take advantage oil
their power to Cypress the labor and
overtax the land of the State; if they
crush the industry of one man or place
to build up the prosperity of another
if they plumber the rich by extortion
or deepen the distress of the poor by
discriminating against them, they
justify themselves by showing that al
this was in the way of business, thar
their interest required them to do it
that if they had done otherwise thei
fortunes would not have been 81
great as they are; that it was tn,
prudent, proper and successful method
of managing their own affairs. Thi
is their universal answer to all com