The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-13
JUDGE CLARK'S ADDRESS PEOPLE
AND THE RAILROADS.

The address of Justice Walter Clark
before the convention of Railroad Com
missioners, at Denver, printed in full
elsewhere today, is an exceedingly able
and, in the main, conservative handling
of the common carrier problem. vex-
ing matter at best, it has become doubly
SO through the undisguised contempt
with which the rights of the citizen have
been treated by many of the corpora
tions engaged as common carriers and
by the resultant but natural resentment
that such treatment has inspired in many
Of the citizens.
Not the least of the difficulties that
have confronted the citizen in arriving
at just conclusions, and the legislator in
arriving at practical results, have been
OH the one side the insistent outcries
Of the malcontent who regards every
corporation as something to be sand
bagged and, on the other, the silly plant
Of the corporation tool, the real thing
and the candidate, that corporations are
being martyrized The average citizen,
wanting nothing but fair treatment and
wishing to accord nothing but justice in
return, however he may be confused for
the time by these opinions that may be
had for the price of a pass, in the end
may be trusted to do what is right.
Judge Clark is right when he asserts
that the masses are just. No man who
is content with justice has been found to
dispute the proposition. The friction
that has resulted between the people
and the railroads has been the product
of a policy on the part of some of the
roads that recognized in the people only
an aggregation of beings from whom rail-
roads could extort money. The masses
are not only just, but eminently patient
and forbearing they have come to a
pretty clear understanding of what IS
due to them and will net put up with
less. To imagine that the good old days
Of fine pickings, disproportionately low
taxes, and inadequate accommodations
can be restored through the injunction
medium is to do a vain and foolish thing.
1t only shows that lamentable short
sightedness that in railway management,
in this State at least, has so often led to
the sacrificing of permanent advantage
to transitory triumph.
The speech of Judge Clark is, there
fore, peculiarly timely; in this State be
cause orr people are favored with the
spectacle of a nonresident Federal
Judge setting himself up TO know more
Of the value of railroad property IN the
State than Commission of distinguish
ed citizens upon whom it has specifically
imposed the duty of valuing the roads;
elsewhere because the relation of the
railroads to the people has become, under
Industrial and economical development,
a topic of acute interest.
We repeat that this policy Of outrage
and contempt on the part of the rail
roads, this policy of extorting the last
cent possible, of fayoring the few at the
expense of the many, of doing only at
tire dictate of the court Of last resort
what ought to have been done freely and
willingly at first, is proving and is bound
to prove in the long run an egregious
mistake from a financial point of view.
1t is a singular, not to say sinister, fact
that it is with the corporations of the
semi-pubic character of common carriers
only that the masses have not been
able to dwell in peace and harmony
The relations with all others, previous
. to this late day of cut-throat trusts M
any rate, have been pleasant and AMIGA
ble Yet such has been the policy Of
the average railroad that not country
village anywhere feels safe in depending
upon one road only for its communica
ton with the outside world, and no town
with the slightest claim to commercial
Importance rests content until it has
competing lines because experience he's
shown that thereby only are living rates
assured.
Tie time has come when the wise
railroad manager will pause to consider
whether it is not better to follow the
example of the lawyer, the doctor, the
merchant, the manufacturer and make
friends instead Of enemies of patrons,
and equally whether it is not better to
run tire roads ON business, rather than
on political lines Some of the railroads
are already doing this.
And nothing is more certain than thai