Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-13

you cannot get an opinion out of any one of
them. Because they are not honest men
Not at all: but because, as you lawyers say,
because all these engineers have in their
pockets a retainer from this great combina-
ton, so that there are words whispered in
the ears of every committee; there are in
terested men talking TO every committee: If
they go to city, men turn up accidentally
and they have this suggestion to make and
the other suggestion to make; and there
fore / want this great inquest for the peo-
pie; this great jury to sit upon the cause Of
the people and defend the people from this
monStrous devilfsh that holds all of The cleo
trical business, all electrical experiments in
it's grasp that if a man invests any ching
in electricity today, he Is taken and crushed
at once, or he can surrender his property
to this great trust and for less than its
normal commercial value"
Mr.. Haines Of New York who confessed
that he has been interested Z ecuniarily in
building street railways, made plea for the
overhead trolley.
Does the Company owe the Money.
Mr.. Williams of Mississippi said: Not
withstanding the very able though some
what labored. argument of the gentleman
from Alabama (Mr. Cobb. il seems TO me
that one fact stands out in the discussion of
the question before us: that is that this
street railway company does really owe and
ought to pay the District Of Columbia the
sum of about $4,000. 1t appears that two
courts have come TO that conclusion. 1t an
pears that the Congress OF the United States
formerly came to that conclusion and al
tempted to forfeit the charter of this COM
pany because OF its failure TO pay that
amount. Now, having attic mpted that in one
way and having failed, it behooves us, it
seems to me, in view of all The facts 10 see
If there is not some other way of accom-
plishing the same result; and it happens
that there is provided in the charter Of this
company itself a method, for it is provided
thnf al 4
the chartef.
I'VE have sufficient cause 1 say. in the
fact that they properly owe to the District
of Columbia $4,000 which they have not
paid, and think that having exhausted one
method of making them pay that dcbt-be-
cause it was barred by the statute-ys.
ought to try another. And. by the way let
me say that what is agreed here in this
bill by this company, that they will abide
me judgment of a void act of national leg
islation, is an agreement to nothing under
the sun, because there is no lawyer who be-
lieves that there is any constitutional,tv
about a legislative forfeiture. no lawyer
who does not believe that 20 make a for
forfeiture valid ii must be judicial in its
character. Therefore / say this agreement
amounts to nothing, and this ,4ompany
stands here proposing to do absolutely moth
ing, and demanding at the same time from
the public new franchises of a highly i'm
portant ana valuable character. Elsewhere
Mr. Speaker. it is getting to be the haplt not
That is getting to be the system everywhere,
and 1t ought to be the system here
Good Cause to Repeal the Charter.
Continuing. he said: "Aa L said a mo-
ment ago, the truth about their manage
nent (of monopolies) lies in the middle
way between the two extremes 1t lies
in the direction which the city Of New
Orleans, the city of Baltimore and the
city of New York have opened the way TO.
in the direction of making these natural
monopolies pay toward the cost of gov
errfng the city a yearly amount based
upon a percentage OF their gross receipts,
and of closely controlling them in the
interest Of the people. / say we ought 10
welcome the opportunity whenever IL is
presented of getting ourselves out from
under the old SYSTEM and into the new
system, and such an opportunity is pre-
scented here. We have the right and the
power under this charter to repeal the