The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-23

| liberation. Who thinks that Colorado,
with it's war on men who work at the
bequest of the corporations which
own the monopoly of the hills and
which make or unmake the fortunes
of weak men with political ambition
sunk to the ends of gain; a State that
would turn loose upon labor man
| like General Bell, ex-Indian fighter
and sheriffs office terror of frontier
towns, ex-Rough Rider and man to
whom fight is the breath of his nos
| trils, to deport men from the State
and to practice cruelties unknown in a
republican land; State so fused into
compliance with corporate desire as to
permit the deliberate theft of the
Governorship from the man who had
been elected by majority Of the peo-
pIe;-who believes that the people of
trust ridden Colorado will not return
eventully to freedom which will have
the one fault, that it will be accom-
panied by a natural revenge? Stupid,
stupid, stupid! Men are men and the
corporations are in the minority. They
cannot beat, nor can they buy the
large majority which composes the
mass of the people. Along the road of
corporate impudence, the end Of the
path draws closer and more clCGe, un-
til it's shadow falls even within the
walk of those who in their blindness
are most scant of sight. There is
but one end of that rule which is
based on anarchy and that is-an-
archy. And the breeding of injus-
tice is only less certain than it is
terrible.
Here in North Carolina, in Durham,
there has been given this week an ex-
ample of a railroad attempting
piece Of anarchistic work, which was
Haunted deliberately in the faces of
people who had been sorely tried In
laying the tracks along Peabody street
in the night time the Southern Rail-
way was Inaccessible. That street has
been in the practical and undisputed
possession of the city for more than
forty years. The town has looked
upon it as its own. Homes have sprung
IL.
has gone it's way along it's course. Bar
ring any possible technical right which
the road might have had under its
charter there has been the presump-
ton of dedication lasting through two
generations of people. True, there
has been litigation about Peabody
street which is also within the<alleged
fright of way" But Pettigrew street
was not mentioned. That the South
ern road should claim it was a sug-
gcstion which had its first birth when
the midnight laborers put their picks
into the ground and commenced the
f.! laying of a track to convert a high
way into a freight yard. If the rail-
road has right to the street, there
were better ways to establish it. The
courts are open, Federal courts as
we'll as those of the State. Why did
not the alleged owners of the street
| of a prosperous city inaugurate their
claim in the orderly manner which
would mark the action of peaceable
individual seeking the recovery of his
property? Why seize and then defend?
1t tastes not sweetly to the North
Carolina palate that any corporation
should seize" the property of any
citizen or any city. The process
| smacks of too great braggadocio, it
suggests the bully it intimates a dis
respect which it is not in the blood of
| the people to tolerate. To seize and
then defend So did the robber barons,
with the motto on their medieval
coats of arms: Let him take who
| hath the power, let him keep who
can" But that doctrine remains to-
day merely as a bygone epigram of
the time when mans fortune lay
| in the blade of his battle axe and
women and pigs were indiscriminate
| spoils. The practice has played OUT
for so many ages that it's revival is
an affront to common intelligence.
But the railroad will say did not
the citizens of Durham lay the track
of the Seaboard Air Line in the night
time? Did not they set the precedent? 2"
Perhaps, but what answer is that? If,
smarting under an oppressive railroad
monopoly, citizens of Durham became
exasperated to the point where they
dealt in a spirit of anarchy, is that a
valid reason for the promotion and the
continuance of the vice? Wrong never
yet begot virtue, nor has one tyranny
ever yet given the color of right to
it's successor. And, to pursue the
chain to it's first link, what were the
conditions giving rise to the first Of
Tense of impotence in this railroad
war? Was it not the spirit of intoler-
ance, of contempt, of anarchy to-
wards the natural rights of the peo-
pie. that first suggested the moonlight
method of road building?
Durham could scarcely be said to
be a patient, however much long