West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1905-07-20
COMBINATIONS STRANGLE INDlyID.
UAL EFFORT.

tAb kffOkT.
by Judge Peter s. Grosscup Of Chicago
Whatever may be its legal status,
a policy of discrimination shat gives
TO one set of persons IN commun-
ity rates that are refused to the rest
OF that community or to certain
communities rates that are refused
to other communities is policy Of
injustice-unjust both to the per
sons and communities Disseminated
against and unjust to the people of
the United States as an entirety.
And this injustice is one that is the
business of our people as a nation
to look after, for practically it is
armed Intervention by the railroads
of the nation that in these days of
small profits turns the fortunes of
the contest.
have on other occasions pointed
out that the present corporation
policy of this country that makes
the proprietorship in the country's
corporate property impossible, ex.
cept to those skilled in so called
methods Of finance, Is the great
iron bar across the door of individ-
ual opportunity. A railroad policy
that selects one person from among
all the people of community that
he alone may survive or one com
munity from all the communities
that it alone may prosper is heavy
bolt on that door. Both policies
create individual cases of wealth.
But it is not wealth founded on
merit. 1t is wealth rather than by
kings prerogative, the first through
loaning the seal of the State to ent-
erprises that often the conscience
of the State would spurn and the
second by using the tollgates on our
great highways to bar out all who
do not bring to the gatekeeper the
password of influence.
No one, it seems to me, ought to
be more deeply interested in the
agitation-at least so far as it is
sane agitation-is not against the
railroads. The only natural enemy
OF the railroads is that class who toll
not, neither do they spin, declining
20 take on themselves the exertion
OF the lily that draws its nourish-
ment from the earth--that class
whose enmity does not stop with
the railroad, but will be satisfe d
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 the people of the
United States, regardless of their
interest individually as shippers,
have come to look upon the subject
as national concern. And what
is new in the present agitation, and
full Of danger, too, is that from its
being a question of the proper rela-
ton Of the railroads to the public
on business and political principles
it may become a movement under
cover of which the social and the
political revolutionists will push
forward their assault upon the pres
ent order Of American institutions.
Already they are climbing over
the wheels into our presidents
wagon, determined to ride Just as
ne IS comp eled to carry them on
his way to just solution Of this
problem. Already they are claim
ing this whole movement. Herein
lie the embarrassment and the peril
Of the president.
Right here too, rises that grim
menace that no friend Of the in
stiiution Of private property any
where can afford longer to ignore.