Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-21
Senator Morgan Submits a State
ment in Regard to Them.
FUNDING BILL AGAINST VESTED RIGHTS
He Urges Government Control on
Broad Patriotic Grounds.
S E V E r E CHI A r G e S


position decidedly antagonis tic to the bill
reported to the two houses, and begins by
sharply criticising the joint meetings of
the subcommittee of the two houses for
the formula ton of the bill He character
duty and privilege. Such action is, he
says, calculated to bring the pressure of
outside influence of the most serious char
acter to bear directly upon the action of
the Senate, and to warp its free judgment
upon the measure before It. The added
burden of the adjudication by a committee
of the House is calculated to smother
OUT the minority.
Taking UP the bill, the Senator says the
proceeding proposed is one of bargain and
sale in dsposing of the property and rights
of the government and is novel because
hitherto Congress has not engaged in that
line of service
Dictated by Railroad Men.
THE BILL" he says, shows on it's face
that Its esding features have been dictated
by combination of railroad magnates, who
have combined in a general plan that
which is intended to secure to themselves
great advantage at the expense of the peo-
pie. The hearings before the committees
of the houses show that these men have
been in active negotiation and extremely
alert in presenting their views of the case,
while the government and the people have
not been represented by authorized and in
structed agents.
Senator Morgan says examination of
Mr.. Huntington's testimony taken before
the Senate committee on Pacific railroads
will disclose a most extraordinary condi-
ton of affairs rels ting to the Central and
Southern Pacific railroads arr other roads
connecting with them He continues:
Without attempting, in this paper, to ar
ray the evidence of fraud and peculation
which Huntington's testimony vainly at
tempts to conceal, attention is drawn to
the fact that his evasons of the truth as
1t is thoroughly established are his main
reliance for misleading Congress in his eff
fort to capture the Central Pacific rail-
road, after it has made him and his three
or four associates enormously rich, on the
plea that his pride impels him to save the
road from bankruptcy, to which his fraud
ulent dealing seems to have driven it
Disturbing Vested Rights.
He says the bills offered propose a total
change of the existing laws as they affect
the rights of the United States, the cred
itors of these companies, and the stock
holders and bondholders, and such alter
alton is provided for in most elaborate and
complex legislation.
MANY of the proposed features of all these
bills affect in the most questionable way
vested rights that are threatened with
violent disturbance
He proposes as substitute bill adding
power that is not now provided by law
that will enable the government to liqui-
date debt that is falling due on the sub
sidy bonds and the first mortgage bonds
Of these companies, and to provide for the
collection of the debt paid for interest upon
the subsidy bonds and to apply the in
come of the corporations to such purposes.
Senator Morgan says, in continuing his
remarks: THE United States has great
d,
railroad, that is virtually owned by Great
Britain. 1t Is rival as well in commercial
competition as in governmental service If
we permit this great national highway 10
be severed, as is about to be done the
eastern half. with the Oregon short line,
to pass under the control of a European
syndicate, and the western half to fall INTO
the vortex of monopoly which is repre-
sented by the Southern Pacific Company
the Kentucky Company-not only will the
plan established in 1S62-1S64 be lost, and the
hopes of the government blasted that have
cost the country so much, but the control
OF our transcontjnental commerce will be
also lost, and the government will be a
beggar at the feet Of native and foreign
railroad kings for favors where we now
have rights.
Government Control.
There is plenty of money in the hands
of the people Of the United States seeking
such investments to take every bond at 3
per cent that We will issue to refund and
reduce these railroad debts, and our people
will own the road in the outcome and will
gladly keep it in control of our govern
ment. and we will be saved the loss and hu-
initiation of buying gold to ship abroad TO
pay dividends on the stock. This is our
great opportunity to make of this great
road an American institution. SO that we
may have one railroad, at least, that is not
the mere servant and dividend producer for
the capitalists Of foreign countries"
down ral fh., fDJI
ing propositions:
First. That no creditor Of these compa nies
other than the United States has the ability
to handle this great mass Of Indebtedness
resting upon these roads so as to preserve
the just rights of all concerned.
Second. That these charters were not
granted, nor was government aid given to
these roads, with any intention, expressed
or implied, that the charters should ever
expire or that they could be destroyed by
judicial decree, or that the control of them
as instrumentalities of government should
ever be taken out Of the hands of Congress-
Third. That no court has power to sell,
dissolve or wind up either of these corpora
tions any more than a court could dissolve
and wind up a bureau. In one of the ex-
ecutive departments of The government.
The Roads Solvent.
He asserts that under fair and honest
management the roads are able to pay their
detts, and. says: 1T will be censure upon
the American name that will blacken it the
world over if it can ever be said with any
color Of probability that the crimes of the
Credit Mobiier and others quite as worthy
of reprobation which hovered about the
cradle of the first and grandest of our
transcontinental railroads have followed it
and bounded it to it's grave and presided
at it's death and burial"
He argues that the people in the region
between the Missouri and Mississippi riy-
ers and the Pacific coast must depend on
railroads for commercial facil ties and pri-
vate corporations beyond congressional
control, should not be permitted to own
and operate this great national trunk line
of railway for their own monopolistic ad-
vantage, and says:
-Four men who owned the stock In the
Central Pacific Railroad Company and q
few who owned that of the Union Pacific
Company built them under contracts made
with themselves through a Contract and
Finance Company and Credit Mobilier
Company, which they also owned, and
they have blazed UP before the country in
a glitter of wealth that eclipses the wealth
of the greatest monarchs of the earth
Government MnnnEement,