Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-29

the railways to the people and the duty
way commissions and railroad pools, de-
clares Mr.. Hartman, are obsolete and
II is presumptuous as we'll as prepOster-
Gus for lawmakers who know nothing
Of railroad business to be given power
to make rules for railroads when there
are at the head of the railroads men
who have spent their lives in learning
the business.
"Why should not the managers Of rail-
roads, these dictators of their policies,
these advisers of their relations, be al
lowed to conduct the railroads according
to their own trained judgment and dis
crimination?' asks Mr.. Hartman. In
almost the same breath the originator of
community of interests and railroad
mergers ~endeavors to clinch the question
by asking, us 1t because the railroads
take advantage Of the people and Of the
government under such conditions?
Have you not the whip hand and can't
you stop It with your legislation at any
time when you deem that the railroads
are abusing their privileges and taking
undue advantage Of their freedom?
Any time the people see a railroad get
ting the better of them or violating the
public trust they can stop 1t and 1t is
wrong to place upon us needless and
harmful restrictions till that time"
Mr.. Hartman is not only a great rail-
way magnate, but is reputed to be also
a student and scholar. He is doubtless
familiar with Herbert ~Spencer's con-
tribution to political philosophy en-
bodied in his latest book, Facts and
| Comments" in which,. discussing bust
ness principles, Mr.. Spencer points out
the folly of conducting business on the
theory that everybody is honest and
everything is going right, whereas the
! are going right till it is proved they are
going wrong, but rather suppose they
are going wrong till it is proved that
they are going right. In support of this
maxim Herbert Spencer asks: What
is the meaning of taking a receipt If not
an implied belief in the need for exclud-
ing the possibility of going wrong? What
is the requiring of security when engag-
ing an employee and what need is there
Of detailed specifications of every con-
tract and the naming Of penalties in
case of non-conformance? These are all
recognitions of the truth that things
will go wrong unless they are made to
go right"
This principle applies with equal force
to the safeguarding of the public inter
est in dealing with public carriers as it
Toes to the precautions taken for the
public safety through the criminal code
that provides penalties for all classes
| of offenses. We do not wait until a
murder or a burglary OF a forgery is
commi' before we enact laws to pun
ish PEI. tors Of those crimes. Nor do
we refrain from policing a city until
after the riot has broken out or from
organizing a fire brigade until after the
conflagration has wrought it's havoc.
1t Is scarcely necessary to impress
upon Mr.. Hartman that railroads are
public highways and the privilege Of
levying tribute on the products and peo-
pie transported over them is subject to
right of state and nation to impose upon
the chartered railway corporation rules
and regulations for the safety of the
public. Had Mr.. Hartman been
familiar with railroad legislation in Ne
braska he would know that nothing the
railroads have asked from Nebraska leg
islatures has been withheld.
Nebraska railroads Insisted on being
exempt from, the ordinary mode Of as
sessment and taxation and they have e n
joyed exemption from tax burdens
which by rights they should have borne.
In 1886 the people of Nebraska by ar
overwhelming majority voted down the
proposition to create a railway commits
sion, but within three months a railway
commission was created by the legisla-
ture at the instance Of the railroad man
ayers. That commission continued many
years to draw subsistence from the state
for doing nothing. And when the courts
decreed that the commission had power
to supervise and regulate railway traffic
the railroad managers had 1t snuffed out
by the supreme court as %unconstitu-
tionaL.
Mr.. Harriman's theory that the let
alone policy would afford relief for all
the abuses from which the public has
suffered at the hands of the railroads is
fatty c~ontradicted by experience. No
relief has ever been afforded to railroad
patrons west of the Missouri except as
the result of protracted agitation, legis.
lation and litigation.