The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-03-09

The resistance of the railroads to the
passage Of important legislation regulat-
ing their charges would seem to demand q
word Of timely warning. Resistance to
reasonable legislation on the part of tho
railroads has ultimately resulted in the
enactment of unreasonable legislation.
The granger legislation in Wisconsin,
Iowa and Minnesota was neither judicious
nor altogether just, but it was provoked
by the insolent. arrogant and not seldom
successful efforts of the railroads to
cajole courts and corrupt legislatures.
The popular will was obstructed
and the creature of the state be-
came practical dictator and overload to
its creator. A sudden outburst of popular
fury followed this short-sighted policy Of
the railroads, and the 'grangers" carried
the day and passed legislation in their
honest indignation that roa sted the rail-
roads and made them sweat and groan
under the burden Of . weary life for sew.
eral years. In Iowa the railroads are
stiil sitting In sackcloth and ashes, and
they have been made to suffer frightfully
for their folly in Kansas, Texas and Mis-
souri,. This granger legislation was not al
ways wise, nor judicious, nor just, but il
WAS just the kind Of destructive legislation
that railroads may expect to get if they
rouse the people to the white heat of in
dignation.
The railroads in this state should not
forget that he who refuses to be ruled by
the rudder il likely to be ruled by the
rock. The people have no hostility to the
railroads; they object only to their meth
DDS of using their power and opportunity
TO paralyze reasonable legislation de-
manded by tho people. The tools of the
railroads in our state legislature grossly
misrepresent the people; they hold in Gym
Zeal contempt the applause of grateful
people; they only want their substance:
they want their railroad or pet trust
taken care of. and they think no
moro of the future veal or woe of
the people. whose vast trust they
treat rs pocket borough. than
they do of the veal or woe
Of rowing Comanche or a vagrant coolie.
The people sometimes denounce railroad
men" bitterly. not because they begrudge
such railroad men their profits or because
they are rich, but because of the rascally
way in which these railroad men or their
agents seek to impose upon the people They
never hesitate To buy member of con-
gress, 10 corrupt Legislature, or to stock
. conrt with their tools when they canno,
purchase a court or n legislature ready
made 10 their hand. 1t was by such i'm
moral methods that Tom Scott. Jaw
Gould. Huntington, Stanford and others
whose names will readily suggest them
selves, secured the socalled profits" the
people do begrudge them; the riches they
did not merit.
The peoples quarrel with these railroad
'despots" Is not because they are rich or
because of their profits. but because the
profits aud the riches are obtained not by
the legitimate methods OF business. but by
bribery, theft, by vast conspiracies and
combinations 81 railroads and transporta-
ton lines against the public veal. The
sidal wave OF patriotism tina. drowned
out all the meaner feeling, in its sub
merging sweep reached its climax in lsT6,
and has been slowly receding until the
present date. II begins to look q. IL
patriotism that could drown mighty re-
hellion against the flag had finally
struck = cliff which its once tower
ing wave is too feeble TO rurmount.
Aud that IL the rock Of an organized.
banded railroad" plu.ocrscy in American
politics which when il goes to congress or
"a state legislature never considers q great
public question from the standpoint of the
pablic veal. but from the standpoint Of
the pira,ical plu,ocrst who asks himself.
Whist IS hes, for my pocket! What Is
best fer my PERSONAL interests, that are
always in the attitude Of prayer before
congress and state legislatures that are
clothed si,h powers Of life or death to
NY designs'"