The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-08-12
THE RAILWAY WARS AGAIN.


ITyIbausting 1t" "By pushing the
nresent , suit against the Reading sys-
hem" says the writer, "and beginning
and pushing as many more as possible
that system will be eaten up by its own
LAWYERS" By insisting on this course"
and constantly urging it the readers
of the World are assured that it will
incalculably serve the interests of the
people.
There have been various plans
suggested for the overthrow of the
Reading, but this of conquest by
exhaustion" is the simplest. Mr..
Cassatt. whose terror of railway COM
bina,ions thrilled the newspapers in
February and March, insisted that the
Government should interfere. Mr..
Cassatt's sudden horror of monopoly
did not go SO far as to propose
dissolution of the alliances under
which the Pennsylvania system had
been made powerful monopoly.
Nor did he propose a return to the
dear old Camden and Amboy days,
nor a revival OF the blessed tonnage
tax, nor a restoration to the North
em Central, the Philadelphia and
Erie, the Philadelphia, Wilmington
and Baltimore and other ravished
corporations of their bereft honor
and dignities. His game was the
Reading, and his associate against
monopoly was Mr.. Terence V.
Powderly. Several New York news
papers with unconscious humor were
pathetic over the Governors refusal
to act,' when implored by such
eminent labor movement leaders as
Mr. Powderly and Mr.. Cassatt. An
other cogent member of this anti
Reading alliance is Mr.. Henry Clews,
a Wall street magnate, whose fin.
ancial position is like that of those
enterprising gentlemen on the jersey
coast, to whom every storm is har-
vest when it gives them the blessing of
wreck Mr.. Clews advised the
State OF Pennsylvania to take possess
ion of the anthracite lands, and ignor.
ingthe millions that had been paid
for ownership by thousands of invest
ors, treat coal as an inherent natural
right, as air, water and sun. OF
course, TIE principle involved was
conhscation. Money invested in the
transportation Of wheat, the regulation
of water supply and the manufacture
of light was on this principle as amen
able to conhscatlon as that invested
in coal Mr.. Clews would, however
Conhscate coal as war upon the
Reading, and in the interest of Wall
street adventurers who had not given a
dollar for coal development
Of these various warlike processes,
the Cassatt- Powderly plan of having
the Governor ''interfere agains,
monopoly" the Clews plan of con
hscatlon, and the World plan to ''con
quer Reading by exhausting it harry
ing the Reading by law suit, until
like that forlorn, vermin-devoured
bishop on the Rhine in the German
fable, it was "eaten up by its own law
yers, THE latter seems to have been
adopted. There are, we believe, q
half dozen suits brought, as the
World advises in its conquest by
Exhaustion" The World, as ou,
readers note, commends these suits
not for their merits, but as a par,
OF "the conquest" of the Reading
One of them was dismissed out o.
court the other day in Easton. That
makes no difference. The suit cos
money. There is no reason wh,
there should not be a dozen more
1t Reading "is to be eaten up by it
own lawyers" the question is no
what the courts may decide--bu
keep the courts busy over "decision.
Yet this question seriously con
sdered is of the gravest nature. |
the money to defend these suits is tc
be taken from Reading investors, anc
II by forms of legal machinery it is t(
De taken to such an extent as to soon
quer Reading by exhausting IT.,
where are the supplies found for thei
pTosecutlon' Lawyers are paid or
both sides of cause. If the defend
ant is to be exhausted, who nourishe
and recuperates the Plaintiff Onl,
the editor of the World supposes tha
Plaintiff Gummere in the Easton cast
pad penny of the cost The NeY
York Ecening Post distinctly refer
'oit as lone Of the Pennsylvania SUI
against the Reading. If the E0en
m9 Post were not a careful paper w
might overlook this statement. Ye
when a leading and conservative
newspaper sums up this conquest b.
exhaustion campaign as in reality ;
senes Of "pennsylvania suits agains
tne Reading it opens an importan
aeld Of inquiry.
Philadelphia studies the history ant
cause OF her own development, an'
what does she find? No corporation