The news & observer., 1897-02-10
THE OUTLOOK FOR ANNULLdNG
THE LEASE IMPROVES.

2
suit 10 set aside the ninety-nne year
lease of the North Carolina railroad %
the Southern Railway will probably be
reported to the House to-day, with GER
tain amendments that will prove very
! popular. If the committee shall FAM to
make the bill entirely satisfactory, the
friends of the measure ought to have
no trouble in doing so.
The two main objections to the bal, 1.
To authorize the Governor to sell the
road; and 2. To repeal the charters of
railroads in Piedmont North Carolina
that might parallel the North Carolina
railroad, have been stricken out, and
a section has been incorporated to pre-
vent any possibility of giving to any
railroad monopoly of the carrying bus
iness. Quite number of legislators who
desire to annul the ninety-nine year lease
had expressed their unwillmgness to
support these provisions, and their argu-
ments convinced those in charge of the
bill that the two stricken out were not
material.
So far the emissaries of the Southern
Railway, with their powerful lobby and
their influences that permeate in all di-
rections, have not been able to divide the
forces against the annulment of the lease
by diverting them from annulling the
lease to discussing provisions of the ORR
ginal bill. This was their programme,
but the wisdom of those in change of the
measure has forced them to make their
attack i'm some other direction.
The people all over the State are be-
coming deeply interested in the question.
The attempt to muddy the waters by
charge that this is a contest between
rival corporations has failed. The peo-
pie see that there is not even a sugges-
tion of annulling this lease with the
Southern in order to make a new lease
with the Seaboard, but that when the
present lease is annulled, advertisement
is to be made for bids from any and all
parties, to the end that the company
willing 10 pay the highest rental shall
secure the lease.
There is also widespread now the
true issue: Shall the State give $4,000
annually for ninety mine years to the
Southern Railway, or shall it put that
sum in its own treasury to lengthen the
school term or decrease the burdens
of taxation? This is so simple ques-
ton the humblest voter in the State can
understand it as well as the wisest schol-
ar No amount of tweedle-dee and twee-
dle-dum can make THE people lose sight of
the real issue, and now as they under
stand that $4,000 yearly for 80 years
is involved. they viii demand of their
Representatives that they represent the
taxpayers and not the Southern Rail-
way. No legislator can serve both. They
must choose whether they viii serve their
constituents, or rob them to enrich an
already rich corporation.
1t is true that legislator, who listens
to those lobbyists who make it their busi-
ness for pay to accost him on the street
or visit him at his hotel, may be deceiv-
ed by their representations. 1t is very
easy to be influenced by the few who
travel to Raleigh ON free passes and to
forget the many who are bearing the
heat and burden OF the day in their hum
BILE avocations. The time was that the
railroad lobbyists were all lawyers. The
chief ones still belong to that profession,
and every time one Of them hangs a.
round the capitol or the hotel lobbies to
whisper arguments he is paid 10 make
in the ear of members, he dishonors his
profession. But the railroads do not this
session confine themselves to hiring law
yers to lobby. They are hiring men of
other calhngs who VIII not be suspected
Of being lobbyists to do much of their
work. In this they show their usual
shrewdness. But the wise legislator will
turn a deaf ear to those who come here
to "worlz him" for the railroad. Macau-
ley gave the eyerlastingly true test of the
able public man. He said that he was
uninhuenced by those near him, who
could add to his pleasures, and thank him
for his kind offices, but looked be-
yond them and legislated for the many
whom he could never see or know, and
whose words of thanks he could never
hear. The legislator wtllo pursues thus
policy, will vote to do all he can to annul
the ninety year lease.
If the Legislature fails to annul the
lease the people will surely annul the
Legislature.
WHAT REPUBLICAN RULE