The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-12


the rates charged by the railroads is
one of the conditions upon which an
individuals business will succeed or
fail. To a very substantial extent too.
these rates are conditions authorized
by the nation itself; for the railroads
are the nations carriers, and within
the nations reasonable control. So
that, any difference in rates permitted
by law, even though based on the bulk
of the tonnage handled, is direct and
effective blow, by the nation itself.
at the principle that every man, what
ever his present business size. shall
be given equal conditions and equal
opportunity. To destroy that princi-
pie is to destroy competition. and fur
Their concentrate wealth in fewer
hands.
Rights of the Individual.
And after all is said, it is the indi-
vidual man, at the head of his family,
that is the determining unit of any
government that is to remain repuD-
lican; and the only atmosphere In
which the individual man will con-
tinue to grow to full civic maturity, is
that which opens up to him, in all oil
rections, the avenues to meaSuraDly
successful life. True, men are not
born with the same faculties. Some
are born with brain fitted to organize
great enterprises; some with talent 10
hold together and drive forward en-
terprises already organized; some with
ability successfully to do only small
things in small way; the great ma
jority of us with skill only to do that
which is given us to do. But no man
knows, until after fair trial, what place
is his And in the atmosphere of
equal conditions alone, will be found
his opportunity for a fair trial.
I have on other occasions pointed
out that the present corporation pol
icy of this country, that makes the
proprietorship in the country's cor
porate property impossible, except to
those skilled in so-called methods of
finance, is the great iron bar across
the door to individual opportunity. A
railroad policy, that selects one person
from among all the people of a COM
munity, that he alone may survive; or
one community from all the commune
ties, that it alone may prosper; is
heavy bolt on that door. Both poll
cies create individual cases of wealth.
But it is not wealth founded on merit.
1t is wealth, rather, by kings prerog-
alive; the first through loanlng the
seal of the State to enterprises that Of
ten the conscience of the State would
spurn; and the second, by using the
toll gates on our great highways to
gatekeeper the password of influence.
Both of these policies run athwart
that law of natural selection, that
hitherto has determined among us the
measure of each Individuals success.
Both are unjust Both are unrepub-
lican. Both must go. The new nation,
now rising, will have neither To
each of the children of the new ma
ton the Industrial command is: Go
forth, increase and multiply: and it is
the first business of the nation to see
to it that this command be given the
equal conditions on which, alone, ii
can be fulfilled.
Not Foes of the Railroads.
No one, it seems to me, ought to be
more deeply interested in the agitation
now going on than the railroad men
themselves. The agitation--at least
so far as it is a sane agitatiGn-is not
against the railroads. The agitation
is against abuses that have grown up
with which the railroads are connect
ed. The farmer, for instance. is not
the enemy. naturally, of the railroads.
He recognizes in the railroad the
strong arms that hold him and his in
tereSts close to the throbbing pulse of
the world S activities Nor is the man
ufacturer the railroads enemy, natur-
ally; nor the merchant nor the sane
minded public. The only natural enc
my of the railroad is that class who
toll not, neither dc they spin, declin-
ing to take on themselves even the
exertion of the lily that draws its nour-
ishment from the earth-that class
whose enmity does not stop with the
railroad, but will be satisfied only
when not one stone is left on the top
of another in the whole structure of
private property.
Nor is the agitation new. 1t was
not new eighteen years ago when the
Interstate Commerce bill was passed.
What is new in the present agitation
is, that at it's head is the President
of the United States. What is new
in the present agitation is, that the
people of the United States. regard
less of their interest individually as
shippers have come to look upon the
subject as a national concern. And
what is new in the present agitation,
and full of danger too. is, that from it's
being a question of the proper relation
of the railroads to the public, on
business and political principles, it
may become a movement under cover
of which the social and political revo-
lutionists will push forward their as
sault upon the present order of Amer
lean institutions. Already they are
climbing over the wheels into our con-
sentative Presidents wagon, determ--
ined to ride just as far as he is COM
PEELED to carry them on his way to
a just solution of this problem. Al
ready they are claiming this whole
movement as their movement Herein
lies the embarrassment, and the peril,
of the President. Right here, too,
rises that grim menace, that no friend
of the institution of private property
anywhere can afford longer to ignore.
Tho big-brained railroad man has,
it seems to me, his hour of oppor-.