The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-05-23
A RAILWAY OCTOPUS.
IT vAINLY ENDEAVORS TO BOTTLE UP
THE SEABOARD AIR LINE.
An Unforeseen Obstacle Found-Why
the SeabOard Air Line Refused to
Join a Body Organized to Protect
Each Other by Robbing the People
COercive Measures Resorted to.
Norfolk (Va.) Pilot, May 18th. J

10 be torewarned is to be FORE
armed'-a saying none the less true
because it is trite. Why does the
cautious mariner take in all sail and
anxiously await the coming tempest ?
Why does the farmer hurriedly house
his stock and protect his crops as far
as he can from impending danger ?
The sun is bright, the air deceitfuly
calm and from horizon to zenith not
cloud is visible. But the barometer is
falling rapidly. A warning comes
from the weather bureau, "Stand from
under! The trend of the storm is
toward you! A cyclone is approach
ing! 1t is near at hand!" The wise
man takes heed and prepares to meet
it. He knows that the indications
pointed out are infallible, and he
shapes his action accordingly.
So in the world of commerce, finance
or politics, signs of evil portent some
times arise, which threaten widespread
disaster when all is apparently serene
and the ordinary observer least expects
it. Fortunately the characteristics
and scope of such signs can be calcu-
lated with certainty as accurate as
the processes Of science. We know
that like causes produce like effects.
We know that selfish means, inspired
by selfish motives, never accomplish
other than selfish ends. We know that
the devil never originated any good if
he could help it. We know that the
devil fish, when it seizes an animate
object, never lets 60 until it has sucked
it dry. By parity of reasoning we
know that cent per cent. Wall street
combine, commanding hundreds of
millions of capital, when it invades
the South and cluthes its revenue
producing territory, intends to extort
from it every dollar it can be forced
to yield. Its object is not to develop
the resources of the country, but to
absorb them as fast as others make
them valuable. Ii proposes to take
the cream, and leave to the public the
skim milk.
These and similar reflections are
suggested by statement in the New
York Worldof the 10TH ult., to the
following effect:
The Seaboard railroad system got a
return blow recently in the fight which
is now in the South. The Nashville,
Chattanooga s. St. Louis gave notice
on its own account, and for the Western
& Atlantic road, leased by it, that in
the future it would not pro rate freight
with tho Seaboard Air Line.
The roads giving this notice are in
the Louisville & Nashville system,
under Belmont control, and the move
means that an alliance between J. =.
Morgan, (of Drexel, Morgan & Co..
representing the Southern railroad, and
the Belmonts, has been made to bottle
up the Seaboard lines.
No words could better serve to
unmask the nature and magnitude of
a conspiracy that originated in Wall
street and selected the South for its
field of exploit.
The career of the Southern railway,
could its crookedness be shown up to
the light of day, would challenge
criticism and excite an interest the
opposite of complimentary to its
owners and promoters. 1t does not |
represent the engineering skill that
planned and supervised its construc-
ton, the industry and labor that exc
cuted the work, or the capital that
made its existence possible. 1t is a
crazy-quilt of irrelevant shreds. and |
patches, strands of varying strength
twisted into rope pieces of railroad
beginning nowhere and ending in the
same place, bought for song when
their securities were valueless, and then |
welded into system. Like the
pawnbroker's outfit, the goods were
bought "sheap," then regilded and
put in trim to return a thousand fold
profit on their first cost.
And the South must pay it all, with
accruing interest on expenditures of
corporation, equipment and operation,
in exorbitant rates maintained at the
highest possible tension. The Southern
is no longer an indefinite or uncertain
power. 1t is an aggressive, formidable !
monopoly, animated by spirit
INSCRIPTIONS, grasping and vindictive.
Within the past few years its principal
efforts have been expended in strength
ening its hold on its conquered
domain. If any road dared to COM
pete with it, it was quickly squelched
Gin the Morgan Belmont way) by
depressing the securities to a ruinous
figure, then buying them in. If a
road tapped any source of profitable
revenue, the octopus devoured it. All
was meat for its NAV, grst for its mill.
The Southern at last attained the
summit of its ambition. 1t was in a
position to dictate to others such rates
as suited its own inordina,e greed.
Through its convenient creature and
tool, the Southern Railway and Steam
ship Association, it chalked up on the
bulletin boards just the highest traffic
rates it thought the public would stand
without resorting to revolutionary
shot guns. Almost as a matter of
course its cuckoo allies and the little
fellows tumbled over each other in
their struggles to get promptly into
line. We must do the Southern the
credit, however, OF not attempting to
strangle the South by one turn Of its
screw. Like the merciful man, mindful
of the poor beasts sufferings, it pro-