The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-29

we Shall De by no means coy in Stains
the reasons that are the basis of thai
conclusion,
IN the first place, the three rail-
ROADS involved in the matter have
passed into the apparent control of A
group Of financiers that has ALWAYS
followed an insolent and you-be-d -nd
pollcy toward the Southern people.
Ihey have depended upon Doodle, the
lobby, subservient tools in the Legisla-
lures ana even in the courts to secure
their ends instead of depending upon
conclnatlon and justice. Their legal
agents have been caught in the act of
prlo1ng jurors to return unjust YER
diets, and their lobbyists infest the
legislative halls of every State their
lines touch.
When the Constitutional conven-
ton was called, it was clear that the
issue of legitimate control of public
service corporations by the State must
arise. These people who have come to
dominate the railway situation in the
South Fought the proposition tooth and
nail. They fought it through the in
strumentality of some of the ablest
men in the convention. They went SO
far as to take some of the ablest ad-
Vocates of the Corporation Commits
sion ordinance in the Constitutional
convention upon an exceedingly high
mountain and indicate pleasant pas
lures that might be theirs if the ordi-
nance failed in the convention
But it didn't fail. The Corporation
Commission was established and good
men put on it. In the pursuance of
their duty the members thereof, after
a full and impartial hearing, granted
relief to Virginia business men in the
matter of car service and demurrage.
These railroads appealed to the Su-
preme Court of Appeals With view
not only to knocking out the rules of
the commission, but also with view
to emasculating and discrediting the
commission. The court upheld the
commission.
And Immediately upon the heels of
that decision came this increase in
freight rates that cuts Virginia bus1-
ness men out of the territory upon
whose trade they are largely depend
ent. Is it an improbable conclusion
that this is mere spiteful means of
retaliation adopted by these companies
now apparently under one control?
'"The Virginian-Pilot is not of those
shallow pates who believe in attacking
railroad companies merely because
they are big corporations and because
that specie of demagogy may appeal to
that wants to see both the railroads
and the people prosper, and remain
upon friendly terms, it warns the rail-
roads in question that there is MOTH
ing in adopting a policy of persecu-
ton because the people of Virginia
have seen fit to exercise legitimate con-
troll over these companies as public
service corporations
THE game of slug is one at which
two can play"
Latterly the same spirit of hostility
to the Corporation Commission is be-
ing shown in North Carolina by GER
tain railroads. In Raleigh at this time
a case is on trial in which the State is
seeking to compel the maintenance
of an important connection essential
to the convenience of thousands of
people. The breaking of that connec-
ton, after twenty years continuance,
ought not to be permitted if the trav-
cling public has any rights the rail-
roads are bound to respect. At the
present time also, in Guilford court
the Southern Railway is trying to
defeat the car service and demurrage
Oil passed Dy the last Generd1 Assem-
bly, at the request of merchants and
manufacturers. So desperate are they
in their determination to dominate the
State that they are actually seeking
to abolish the Corporation Commission
by judicial construction. More than
that; certain railroads and trusts are
even now actively at work to control
the next General Assembly, particu-
larry the Senate, and unless the people
are alert, they will pack the State SEN
ate with railroad attorneys, law agents
and others who do the bidding of the
political corporations and trusts. The
campaign expenses and perquisites of
all candidates, who will represent the
trusts and the corporations in the
Legislature, will be paid by the mo-
nopolies they are to serve.
Are the people of North Carolina
ready to turn the State government
over to monopolists to exploit? Are
fire-tried Democrats, who drove out
the carpet-baggers and railroad
thieves in 1859 going to sit still and
see the tools of monopoly elected to
the Legislature and call themselves
Democrats?
ITO your tents, O, Israel