Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-02-13
Evil of Corporate Power.

Evil of Corporate Power.
The day succeeding the assassination
OF Senator Goebel it was suggested in
these columns that one motive for the
crime was disoernible in the antipathy
OF strong railway corporation whose
maleticent power in state politics and
over the enactment and administra-
ton of laws the senator had sought to
destroy. In an article in the New
York Journal, James Creeiman, the
famous correspondent, attributes to
this corporation the dlsorderly con-
dltlons of which the shooting of Sena-
tor Goebel was an incident. He SAYS:
The real author of the reign of ter
ror in Kentucky is the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad company. This
giant corporation has controlled the
councils OF the democratic party in
that state and has dictated the nomi-
nation and election of every governor
since the civil war. 1t is the champi-
on and defender of lawless corporate
power.
Governor Goebel led the fight in the
Kentucky senate and in the law courts
against the criminal and tyrannous
power Of the Louisville & Nashville
railroad and its corporate allies At
times the senator had to fight almost
single-handed. He was a stern, ruth
less, uncomfortable man, the first to
bring the railroad oligarchy to its
knees. Mr.. Goebel enemies may abuse
him, but the fact remains that during
his long service in the Kentucky sem
ate no corporation was able to buy or
bully him. He was incorruptibility
itself in his official life. He forced the
railroad to pay its share of taxes, he
introduced and passed laws protecting
railroad employees, and he brought
scores of actions for damages in courts.
He fought against the corrupt and
laW-defying rule of the Louisville g.
Nashville Railroad company as Tilden
and OConor fought againstenthroned
crime in the days of Boss Tweed.
Not only did Senator Goebel attack
the dread Louisville s. Nashville, but
he boldly grappled with the unspeak-
able Southern Pacific Railroad COM
pany. He discovered by reading the
charter which Coils P. Huntington
and his lobby succeeded in getting from
the Kentucky legislature that the state
had dishonored it's name. This extra
ordinary charter permitted the South
ERIN Pacific to engage in practically
any kind of business except in the
state of Kentucky. In other words.
Mr.. Huntington and his accomplices
could plumber the people of all the 9th
er states, vaoyided that they did not
plumber the people of Kentucky. Mr..
Goebel sought to revoke this almost
incredible charter. 1t was desperate
struggle, and Huntington won the
fight. In the last Kentucky campaign
the Huntington forces joined with the
Louisville & Nashville and the trusts
to defeat Mr.. Goebel.
l made the tour of Kentucky with
Mr.. Goebel and Mr.. Bryan in the last
political fight. l had a good opportu-
nifty of studying this remarkable man,
the most masterful personality, per-
haps, in the whole south. 1t is true
that in the convention which nomi-
mated him for governor he resorted to
political methods that one can hardly
condemn too strongly, but it must be
remembered that he was engaged in a
life and death struggle with what had
hitherto been an irresistible force in
the democratic party. He was fighting
fire with fire.
1t was the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad company and its confederates
that inspired tho spirit of murder in
Kentucky. Again and again was told
during my trip with Mr.. Bryan that
Mr.. Goebel would not survive to take
his seat even if he were elected. The
combined corporations could not afford
to let him live.
How soon will this condition tt things
spread to other states? | have certain
~ seen the intstirrings of this spirit
of the vengeance of overgrown corpor-
ate power much nearer home than
Kentucky"
When Mr.. Creelman penned the last
paragraph of his article he doubtless
had in mind, among other things, the
declaration, made in 1896 by Mr.. Lau-
terbach, chairman of the republican
county committee of New York, that
if Mr.. Bryan were elected the result
would not be accepted. Mr.. Lauter-
bach's assertion involved the threat
that in the event of Mr.. Bryan's sue
cess the corporations and trusts to
whose privileges and monopolies his
inauguration as president would be a
menace, would employ means. like
those just resorted to by the Louisville
& Nashville and the Southern Pacific
in the case of Goebel. to prevent him
from taking his seat. Through class
the concentration of wealth