The news & observer., 1897-02-27
THE BATTLE. MORE THAN HALF
WON.


A week ago the thick and thin South
ern Railway men were telling US what a
blessing lease for ninety mime years
was, and trying to persuade the legisla
tors that they ought to endorse It,
The suggestion of a compromise for
thirty years was received with indignant
scorn when made by we'll known Re
publican, a friend of the Southern Rail
way. Ninety nine years or we'l tear up
the track and strip the road" was the
slogan.
Then came the battle in the House of
Representatives. The biggest and most
influential lobby ever seen in Raleigh was
assembled to prevent the passage of the
bill to annul the lease. Lobbyists were
so bold and domineeTing THAT they actual
ly had to be driven from the floor of the
House.
But all the pressure availed nothing.
The cause of the people tTiumphed. They
got first blood in the struggle over the
question: shall the people be relieved of
$4,000 taxes annually for 90 years,
or shal! that sum be voted o the
Southern Railway? The House stood
firm against every inducement and infu-
cnee brought 10 Gear npon it. All hor :.
to the Commons!
The fight was transferred to the Senate.
Twenty-four members of that body were
pledged by their party platform to vote
TO amnul the lease. Only two more of
the twenty y-six unpledged votes remained
to make certain that the Senate, so often
the bulwark of corporate greed, would
be the citadel of the peoples rights and
hopes. Unless some of the twenty -four
Populists, doilbly and trebly pledged,
should prove untrue to their party plat
form, it was known that enough votes
from the other two parties would be given
DO insure the passage of the House bill
in the Senate.
The fight waxed warm. A few Pop
ulists were found who would repudiate
their platform. But even with these de- {
sertions the House bill would pass. The
railroad advocates found themselves in q
minority OF certainly two, as we printed
ten days ago, and probably three with a
possibility of four.
The fight was lost unless q new plan
of campaign was adopted. 1t is danger
Gus to swap horses crossing stream. But
it is better to incur that danger than
TO float down stream on a spawned and
helpless steed. This was the condition
in which the opponents of the House bill
found themselves ON Wednesday might.
They were forced to compromise or to
meet defeat. There were known to be
two or three Senators if not more wflo
while favoring lease for twenty or
thirty years, could not be induced to be
put in the attitude of voting to sustain
a 80 year lease. They could not be mov-
ed from this position by amy argument,
appeal or influence. They would not go
to Mohammed, and so Mohammed had
to go to them.
The surrender by the Southern Rail-
way of it's lease for 90 years, and its
petition to be permitted to keep the lease
for thirty years, shows that its ultima
ia are subject to such changes as are
necessary to enable ii to keep the
profitable North Carolina railroad.
The scene OF battle is now transferred
TO the House of Representatives Under
unprecedented pressure, that body stood
true when the original bill came up for
consideration.
The duty of the House is plain The
Senate has reduced the term of the lease
from 80 to 80 years. This is more than
half victory for those who have been
fighting the lease Let the House pass
the Senate substitute with an amend
meat increasing the rent to 100000, ana
the sskt will have been completely rssn.