Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-07-07
PRETENDED
TO OPERATE

Oi"h hVShAhs, lhe paralyZed'
youth of Fort Worth, Texas, had been
awarded $4,000. True, the Hoskins
verdict was afterward revoked because
an attorney came forward and testified
that, long before his accident, the bow
and his mother had come to him and
asked what chance there would be for
good damages if an accident like the
one that afterward occurred should take
place, and because when doctor who
had previously believed in Hoskins pre-
tended TO operate upon his brain, the
boy, who had seemed blind, deaf and
altogether inert, sprang from the oper-
ating table and confessed.
There was the case of the Chicago
woman who claimed to be the sister Of
a prominent lawyer whose partner is an
ex-cabinet minister. She was suing the
street car company for many thousands
of dollars with good chance Of re-
covering There was the case Of the
man who stood on the platform Of an
NJ. X. g. T. train at Hillsboro, Texas.
and saw another man crushed beneath
the wheels He was suing the railroad
company for $4,000 because of the
D." horror and mental anguish" he was
subjected to. There was the Chicago
woman of shady reputation, who had
injured her thumb on street car. who
had blackmailed more than one promi
Dent man, and whose father was serv-
ing a life sentence for numbering her
mother. She was suing for a big sum-
It All Comes Back to the People.
No, such things were in the air. Egged
on by political and sociological issues
the public in general and the Chicago
public in particular had come to regard
batting the corporation as a purely de-
fensive public measure, in which at
least there was no sin. True, the city
itself is corporation from which every
citizen draws large dividends in free
police protection, in free sewage re-
moval, in free schooling, and If you
bait it you simply rob it of just so
much Of its capacity for giving you
what belongs to you.
True, the street railway company
is a corporation which gives you more
for your nickel than you could buy for
a dollar in cab service, the railroad
company more for a dollar than you
could buy for ten in stage coach ser
vice, and IL you bait thom you reduce
by so much their capacity for contrib
uting to your comfort. For, as prom
inent railroad official pointed out, every |
excessive or unjust judgment that a
railroad is called upon TO pay increases
It's operating expenses just that much,
and to that extent prevents reduction
either voluntarily or enforced, Of the
rates Of fare and freight; so that in
he end the general public, or those who
ise the railroads, pay or contribute to-
ward the payment Of such judgments.
The corporation is, in effect, the ap-
Of the republican, form Of gov
'rhmont to'privato business. Your
BETTY business man is an absolute mon.
lrch, and may chop Off the heads Of
his employees with let or hindrance. He
nay do so as much as il pleases his
whim. But how long would
J presidential policy of this arbitrary
Iature be tolerated by that leavening
,ody, the board Of directors, which cor
esponds 10 the congress of the United
'tates. If governmental paternalism
gere 20 be substituted for corporate
ontrol of railroads, would the cOrpo-
alton baiters cease their effortsi
The substitution of municipal for
rivate control Of the street railways
( Chicago win shortly furnish an an ,
wer TO this interesting question:
The Profession of Getting Hurt" in :
he July Pearson's.
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