Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-07-06
GOVERNMENT CONTROL.
Railroad Corporations Primarily for
the Benefit OF the P~eople-Trusts
Bsns6t Stockholders.

The railroad magnates and their ON
cials, attorneys and agents are trying
to excite the trust magnates to join
with them ia their fight against gov
eminent control. claiming that the
trusts also being corporations will be
subject to having the price at which
they can sell their products regulated
by law, as it is now sought to control
railroad rates. It is well to keep strict
ly in mind the difference between the
railroad monopoly and other monopo-
lies. The railroads are granted by the
state unusual public powers, such as
the right Of eminent domain and &C
cordingly for the protection Of the peo-
pie are subject to regulation by the
state. The industrial corporations
called trusts will also be controlled,
but in another way, which is partly
provided for in the Sherman antitrust
law, which Furnishes by fine and i'm
%prisonment for combinations in re-
straint Of trade.
We do not have to go outside Of the
ranks of railroad men themselves 20
find clear recognition of the principle
which underlIes the whole matter of
state control of railroads. Thus the
late William H. Vanderbilt, of the New
York Central road, and Mr.. Jewett,
then president of the Erie road, ad-
dressed a letter to the so-called Hep
burn legislative committee back in the
seventies, in which the following prop
ositions are laid down as to be ON
ceded:
That it is the primary duty Of the
state to furnish highways, whether
they be the road, the canal, the turn
pike or the railroad, the state alone
having the right of eminent domain"
That for prudential and other rea-
sons the state of New York preferred
to engage the services and capital OF
her citizens to do what was her duty
to do, granting them certain powers
under certain limitations and restrict
tons.
The state places such citizens in her
place to perform her duties and for
this purpose clothes them with the i'm
perial right of eminent domain"
The ordinary corporation is organ
lied for the special %pecuniary profit OF
its shareholders, the profit of the pub.
lie being secondary. The railway cor
poration is organized primarily for the
benefit of the people of the state, and
the pecuniary consideration is second.
airy.
This statement, it seems to us
should leave nothing further to be said
regarding the broad and radical differ
ence or distinction existing between
the ordinary corporation engaged in
competitive business and the railroad
which is monopolistic in the very ma
ture of the case.
And nOw as to the extension of pub
lie control of railroads to include theil
charges to the public. If we admit tne
%soundness of the above Vanderbilt ani
Jewett positions, as, it would seem
must necessarily be done, then it fol.
lows that government control of rates
is exactly as defensible and called fol
as any other government restriction
upon railroad corporations. For thu
railroad corporation, according to thi!
line Of reasoning, is the agent of Thu
state, performing a state or publ,
function; but the state, or its govern
ment is the agent of the people, sub
ject to the control Of the people ant
held responsible to the people in see
ing that principles Of justice and rea
sonableness are applied and enforced
1t follows evidently that the railroad
as the agents of the state are subjec
to the same ruls and are to be he'll
thereto by the state itself.