Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-14
A SUMMERS PROBLEM
Confronts the Legislator VINO Tries
to Investigate
The Standing Of Tho Pacific Railways in
Court


mass Of ignorance and misinformation
rs on the subject of the Pacific railway
companies. their debt. to the government
and their standing in court. When the
correspondent asks the average member of
congress about it, the prompt reply is, II
have not investigated and will not, as it
ISN'T before our committee" When he
iJocs to one Of the committee, the response
Is: I'VE are working hard on the subject
End expect to make u report as soon as
possible. Until then anything / could say
would be premature When he applies
to the committee room, he Is politely re-
fcrred to q mass Of documents which the
cheapest lawyer in Hoboken would charge
$50 for going through. And finally, when
he attempts to dig out the general history
of the thing, he finds that he has an all
summer Job on his hands, with rcasona-
bly, certainty Of working for nothing
Members OF the judiciary committee frank
ly confess that they have not mastered the
subject, but some Of them think they will.
Senator Cullom, whom all the correspond
ents love because he loves to give informa
ton, very candidly says that the matter is
now out Of his jurisdiction, and he is very
glad it Is. The interstate commerce law,
evil hands, no Thinks and at present he is
only spectator.
An Ardent Student.
TO this general statement there are a
few shining exceptions and chief among
them Mr.. Bailey of Texas, who Ia young,
ardent and enthusiastic, with all the zeal
Of reformcr who has lately gone into the
business. His general view Is that the
I,
that the iucn who had charge of the road
for the 10 years following the war were
very long headed and looked forward to
the time when the whole subject was liza
bic to be ripped up; that nevertheless it
ought to be, must be and shall be ripped
up, for there has been great outrage upon
the government and the people. When
asked for particulars, his answer amounts
to this: 1T Is not the work of day or u
month. / am looking into 1t as rapidly as
possible and in the recess will finish my
investigation. So when congress meets in
December ] shall be able to give you clear
statement of the case I"
Mr. Bailey Is, rs aforesaid, enthusiastic
and hopeful, as his promise plainly shows,
and If youthful ardor has not misled him
we may hope TO know something really
Of the tanglc of law and testimony it is
nevertheless possible to pick few facts,
chiefly historical, but partially of thepres-
cnt time, which will help to make the sit
uation clearer, and among them these:
When the civil war began, there was, as
The Congressional Record shows, fever
ish anxiety about the Pacific states and a
half confessed dread that if things did not
n q at
cd from the border west by 1000 miles of
mountain and desert, would go off with
Mexico, Canada or some other power.
A Familiar Story.
The story is old, and it fatigues the i'm
agination to compute how much was nc
tually given to tho roads in land and sub
sides How the companies organized in
side companies for construction purposes,
how Credit Mobilier ilourishcd and cor
rupted all sorts of people from vice presi-
dent down, and how all the assets went
out of sight is familiar to the public. Suf
flee IL to say that n score or two of gentle
men whose combined wealth at the begin
ming of the enterprise did not exceed $500,
600 rs was proved, came out of it with
from 50, 1000, 600 to 500 900, 600 each. And
now the question is Can the government
claim?
Tho committee records show that Mt
least seven different propositions have
been made and reports given with them,
but in general it may be said that there
ARE three plans proposed. The Hunting
ton plan is for the whole debt to DO re-
funded at, say, . per cent interest, which
tho government is to guarantee, and the
companies arc to go right on as now, with
100 years or so to pay the debt. 1t is evil
dent that the railroaders would have both
ends of the string.
This plan would simply give them an
other century or half century to work in,
with all the risk on the side of the govern
mcnt, The next plan is semsocialistc
1t proposes that the government shall shut
down at once, take the roads and run
them as sort of experiment in govern
ment management of railroads. The third
plan, IL plan Ii can be called, is an attempt
to steer between these two extremes, to go
just far enough to make the companies be-
gin to pay and not quite far enough to
malsc~thc government railroad manager
So far us mcmbers of the committee will
give an opinion and so far as an outsider