South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1889-07-12

often faithless TO the formor.
In other words. they universally
disclairued their obligation OF equal
service to the public. and they often
perverted their coutrol OF tho grea,
properties they managed 10 their
own pereonal enrichment.
How THEY GET RICH.
Men have frequently wondered
bow . railroad manager on his ON.
csai salary could suddenly grow into
. millionaire The secret is largely
IN, the device Of the subsidiary cor
poratton, or as a recent writer, Mr..
bonham, in b:s excellent book on
Industrial Liberty. calls IL, the oar.
asito corporation In the era of
railroad building tie subsidiary cog
pCration took the contracts for CON.
struc,ing, equ,pping or other wise sup.
plying tue road.
1t was cempos ed of the railroad
managers, with enough associations
to act rs its officers. Stripped OF all
disguise, the transaction was one in
which tho managers used their posi-
lions to enrich themselves by favor
ed contracts. This scheme was
brought to the attention of all the
people when the connection between
the Credit Mobilier and the Union
Pacific Railway Company was dis
covered a connection which Mr..
Hosr, Of Massachusetts, doubtless
had In mind when, as manager on
the part OF tie House in the Belknap
impeachment trial, lie said: when
the greatest railroad of the world.
binding together the continent and
uniting the greater seas that wash
our shores, was finished I have seen
our national triumph aud exulta.ion
turned TO bitterness and shame by
the unanimous report Of three com.
mittees of Congress-two OF the
House and one here-that every step
of that mighty enterprise had been
taken In fraud
And Mr.. q. t. Adams, With less
rhetoric but more informatlon, do.
clares that the general railroad man.
agement twas fairly honeycombed
with jobbery and corruption. They
began high up in the wretched ma.
chinery of the construction company
with all it's thimble-rig contrivances
to effect the unseen transfer of assets
from the treasury Of the corporation
to the pockets Of its directors.
Thence they spread downward
through the whole system of supplies
and contracts and rolling stock COM
panies.' The subsidiary corporation
once invented and Its wonderful ca
pacitv for diverting company assets
into the pocket OF the company Off.
Gals, and making millionaire man
ayers. while stockholders and bond
holders yaiDly waited for dividends
or interest, it followed the railroad
corporations in their developments,
eIten sions and struggles.
have already alluded 10 the gross
discrimination made by the railroads
between competitive and non, compe-
titive points. For such discrimination
they pleaded the pressure Of compe.
tition. But they further and every
where claimed the right TO discrim-
inate between individual shippers
and between localities. According
10 their ideas of interest, or out OF
sheer favoritism or the reverse, they
condemed one locality or shipper to
ruin and poverty, and poured into
the lap Of another wealth and pros
perity.
They claimed and freely exercised
what old JOHN Taylor, OF Carolina,
once called 'the worldly omnipotence
OF dealing out wealth or poverty
and I'm 80 doing did not omit to deal
out wealth to themselves, through the
subsidiary corporation, which now
appeared in guIss Of mining, mans
nfacturing or other like company.
To the credit of the manager of
the Baltimore and Ohio Company it
may be said that they alone perhaps
OF all the great railroad companies
did not nse The device OF the subsid-
iary corporation for the purpose of
their personal enrichment, but man.
aged their road In the interest of its
stockholders although they laid the
heavy hand OF discrimination on the
local shipper and too often measured
the charges not by the rule Of equity
or equality, but by what The traffic
could bear
THE TYPE OF TIE SYSTEM.
10 make application Of this seems
depression from my subject. /
will conclude this paper by saying
that l have already spoken OF the
railroad pool as suggesting the pool
N other branches Of industry, and
or The latter pools as foreshadowings
or less perfect developments of The
trusts. Tue committee of the New
York Senate in its report above al.
Iuded TO says of the Standard Oil
trust: This is tue original trust.
It's success has been the incentive 10
the formation Of all other trusts and
combinations. II is the type OF a
system which spread like a disease
through the commercial system of
the country. > Now the Standard
Oil trust is the child Of railroad diss
ordinations. By railroad discrim-
nations 10 It's favor it waxed 90
great as not only 10 crush out almost
all effective competition in its own
business, but in turn 10 dictate terms
to railroads themselves.
by next paper will relate 10 the
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