Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-02-25

Reading Has Taken Another step gains
the Welfare of the Commonwealth.

Those who, last November, voted
against the holding of a constitutional
convention in Pennsylvania, and those
who did not take interest enough in their
own welfare to vote for it, will have
cause to repent in sackcloth and ashes
for their lack of patriotism when they
read of the last act of conspiracy by the
Reading Railroad against the peace and
prosperity of the State. Many of the
great papers in Pennsylvania fought the
measure openly. They deserve credit
for opposing the measure in that man
ner. Others maintained a cowardly ST.
lence on the great issue itself and con-
centrated their energies in a vain at
tempt to defeat the foremost exponents
of the much-needed reform. Others,
not deemed worthy of a bribe, remained
silent till the last moment, hoping that
their influence would be required and
paid for, by those who desired the de-
feat of the constitutional convention.
The measure was from the start envel-
oped in the smoke and dust from our
coal breakers, locomotives and iron-mills,
when the Legislature sent it out among
the people for discussion and action ii
was lured to its ambush by juiicious ad
yertising, and at last, when press and
party were completely enslaved by cor
porate wealth, it was assassinated with
printers ink and stricken down by hands
that did the bidding of monopoly. But
the III, 900 citizens who voted for con-
vention must have known what they
were doing. They realized that bitter
opposition had been brought to bear by
the managers of parties and monopolies.
They knew that there existed necessity
for the holding of a convention or they
would not have voted for it as they did.
When the agitation started four years
ago but four men took any interest in it,
and it is no small cause for congratula-
tion to know that the stand they took in
1887 was indorsed by III 900 of their
fellow citizens in 1891. Through all the
mud that was thrown the idea lived on,
and from the soil that was last Novem-
ber enriched by the ballots of the minor
ity will spring an agitation for constitu-
tional reform that will make a mark
which cannot be blotted out with mud or
obscured by false reasoning. Defeat
comes in two ways, either in disgrace or
with honor. When defeat follows a
struggle for a noble principle no dis
honor or disgrace attaches to it, and
every man who registered his belief in a
government independent of corporate
rule in Pennsylvania must realize that
his duty did not end when his hope fad
ed away before the combined assaults of
treachery and monopoly.
In the light of recent events it is well
to turn to the pages of the constitution
of Pennsylvania and read few selected
passages therefrom, beginning as fol-
lows:
ALI railroads and canals shall be public
highways, and all railroad and canal
companies sholl be common carriers.
On the public highway of the past
the turnpike-every man who had occa-
sion to do so could drive his wagon, or he
could hire a wagon and team and carry
his produce from point to point without
let or hindrance from any other man.
The road was his-no other man could
lay higher claim to it. Where stands
the man so powerful as to transport
single pound of freight or produce on the
public highway" of 1892 if board of
directors decide that he shall be discrim-
mated against? That part of the consti-
tuition of Pennsylvania is as delusive as
concave mirror.
All individuals, associations and cor
porations shall have equal right to have
persons and property transported over
railroads and canals, and no undue or
reasonable discrimination shall be made
In charges for, or in facilities for, trans
portation of freight and passengers with
In this State, or coming from or going to
any other State.
All indiyiduals are not privileged to
exercise the right conferred by that sec
ton of the constitution of the State.
The individual has but to apply at the
coal office of any of the great concerns
operating railroads and mines in Penn
sylvania and ask to have a single ton, or
car, of coal shipped from that point to
either New York or Philadelphia to learn
that there is higher law than that
written between the pages of our dead
and buried constitution. The rule of
the corporation is that the consumer in
either New York or Philadelphia must
deal through the coal agent, and no
single ton, or car, of coal will be shipped
The law of the corporation is the higher
law, for it is obeyed in preference to the
constitution of the State. That part of
the constitution of Pennsylvania is not
operative; it never was operative, and
was not intended to be- it declares a
falsehood
Section 4, article XVII, reads.
No railroad, canal or other corporation
or the lessees, purchasers or managers ot
any railroad or canal corporation, shal
consolidate the stock, property or fran
chises of such corporation with, or lease
or purchase the works or franchises of
or in any way control any other railroad
or canal corporation, owning or havint
under its control parallel or competing
line; nor shall any officers of such rail
road or canal corporation act as an Officer
of any other railroad or canal corporation
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