Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-03-23
AGAINST THE PEOPLE.

In his speech on rate control last
week Senator Tillman. who is in charge
of the bill. in part said;
Vested With the rights of eminent
domain to construct their lines and
granted liberal franchises aid charters,
the railroads, designed TO be public
carries for the benefit of the whole
people, III the last few years have be
come rapidly transformed into the
ver1est band of TObbers-high way men
who do not thru.t their pistols IN the
faces of their victims aud demand mon.
ey or their lives. but no levy tribute
in freight rates which are as high as
the ira ffic will bear, deny access 10
market, monOpolize with brazen elfr0n-
terry one of the prime necessaTies of
life-coai-aDd In every way show their
absolute contempt for the people and
the peoples rights
The scare the Pennsylvania railway
has had in Congress on account of the
Tiilman Gillespie resolution, will be
nothing to the one it may get in the
event the Senate refuses to pass the
rate regulation bill The next scare
may be from the people direct
The scare it is having has made
d few BelshaZz lrs quake and their
knees smite one against the other.
There is a handwriting on the wall
aud il needs no astrologer or soothe-
sayer, no Daniel to tell it's meaning.
These modern BelshaZz IRIS have defled
decency, have outraged the law,
have looted the people, and 1t may not
be just now, but the day Is not far dis.
tant when their Kingdom may be divided
and themselves slain,I q metaphoricai
sense. They have beeu weighed In the
balances and found wanting.
The community OF interest which
has been mentioned az a sort of reiiue-
ment In railroad parlance existing
between the Pennsylvania, the Nor
folk u Western, the Chesapeake & Ohio
and the Baltimore & OHIO, may be a
more Daring violation Of the ex
listing laws of the nation than was the
Northern Securities Company which
the United States Supreme Court not
long since declared void. Nobody
believes that The State of Virginia
would ever have granted charter TO
any Of these railways had 1t fer one
moment thought they would have been
dictated TO, in fact controlled by,
Pennsylvania corporation, whose pol,
icy ayowedly and openly seems TO
have been to loot the people of Wiz
Rinia by all means which artful
money craftsmen could cOncoct? Does
any body believe that the State of Vir-
GINA would have passed laws alIo wing
the land of her citizens to be taken by
these railways, had that State contem
plated for one moment that 1t was
thereby inviting into its domain agents
which would turn on lis people, when
ever directed SO 10 do by the
Pennsylvania r. R.? Ii so, then those
who 30 believe are simple minded.
But such is the case. BY combina-
tion apparently Illegal, the Penasylya-
MIA railroad has taken the B. l. o., tho
O. s. O. and the n. 81 w. railways by
the throat and ch0ked them into SUD-
mission. 1t has manacled them and
forced them to do its bidding as
abjectly as any galley slave Or chain.
ed convict was ever compelled to obey
the order OF his master, If the combi
nation be true, and there are none SO
bold as to deny it.
Congress has made al effort to put
stop TO this, but it may not succeed.
Yet the eyes of the Nation are on this
corporation. The heads of many mon
arcbs have rolled from their trunks, so
will the head of the Pennsylvania rail
road roll from its trunk when public
indignation shall WELD toe weapons
which are youchsafed to it, if it has
conspired against the people. Again
We ask have the railways no foresight?
Are they blind to their own interests?
Do they not see that they have brought
this trouble on themselves, and will
they be crushed before they will sur
render2 Must they be driven as quar-.
~ slaves to do the thing they should
do of their own v0liti0u? We trust
not.