New-York tribune., 1907-01-07
GAYN0R ON RATE LAW.
Defends THE PRESIDENT
Justice Canigutes Men Who Misuse
Public Higmaus.


RochaiIe Forum. He said that the people OF
man came along with the big stick" and struck
1t The great ell OF rate discrimination. which, il
allowed 90 continue. would cornps, the people OF
the United States 10 take over the railroads
and operate them aE government property. He
continued:
President Roosevelt has uaed the big stick.
and IN my opinion, we need q big stlck-the
sophistry tile President has simply put his
finger right on the dot. and SAID THAI the trouble
lie that these highways have got away FROM the
government and the people. Not only those
who control them, but a large number OF other
good people, have driffsd into the belief that
they can do just they like.
Through their evil discrimination the indus
tries of the country have been nassed in few
hands and we are becoming as Grover Cleve
land recently said. 1.-THE servants of these few.
Justice Gaynor said that while the rate bill
was an excellent measure. it had its defects and
loopholes. and that it contained Joker which
would enable the railroads to continue to violate
the law unless IT was backed up by other legis-
laton. This joker. ne said, was section which
called for the books of the railroad companies.
but provided that If they were used in evidence
the individuals convicted on such testimony
could go free. In this connection. he added:
The railroads only had TO hurry their books
into the courts 70 go free and how are you going
70 find out bout their business unless you get
their books As remedy for fhe violations OF
the Interstate Commerce law: the soverhmeh,
should appoint the general freight agent
of every railroad. and such agent should
from the first hour of his appointment see
that no man gets his freight carried cheaper
than his competitor. This might require an
amendment to the Constitution. The Constitu-
tion framed before had railroads. and
that the people should no longer fear TO revise
The clothes made for child cannot remain the
Clothes for grown man
Justice Gaynor introduced by Arthur
Brisbane who characterized him one of the
shlest most fearless end most courageous jus
tees in the United States.
Justice Gsynor complained that he had been
rrsrepresented OIL mis- views regarding railroads.
and corporations He favored the consolidation
of the street railway systems. that the people
could be carried ell over single system for one
fare but said he abhorred the kind of consol-
idation which had been going on for the last
twenty years, and which had finally reached
stage where half q dozen men had been able to
tack on the railroad corporations millions of
dollars worth of bogus bonds and wstered
stocks, on which the people would be compelled
to pay interest forever. at least, for 9s9
years.
Justice Gaynor said that William Jennings
BRYAN was perfectly right in taking the position
that the railroads had become private monopo-
lies Justice Gaynor then spoke of now rail-
roads came 10 be public highways, saying in
part:
ANY individual could build road from here
10 Buffalo, say private road, as can be done
now, if the land can be obtained by private pur-
chase. The trouble is that The owner of any
strip of land the route could stop the build
ing Of the road by refusing sell his land. And
this brings US right TO the point of the matter
Government may take land against the will
of the owner by its eminent domain power
for public highways or any other public or gov
ernment uses. But land cannot be taken for
any private
Fasten that in your mind, that only gov
ernnent take private property away from
the owner. and that Il can take it only for pub
!. lie use, such as for public highway and the
like, and YOU have the key 20 why our iron roads
Just like our dirt and water roads had to be
and We're built not private roads but as
public highways; that is TO say, highways over
which all had the right to have themselves and
their goods carried on the very same terms TO
ail no more and no less to any one. In order
that these iron roads could be built at ALL they
had TO be built public highways, for even
government had not the power 20 acquire land
FOR them except TO build them public high
ways, and 10 enable corporations TO build them
they had to be built as public highways. and
10 that end government had confer such
corporations the right the governments
power of eminent domain 10 take land. You
therefore perceive that iron roads are not
private roads but public highways
Every free pass issued. every favor IN freight
rates granted is in defiance of the law, of the
very law of the being of these iron highways
and the corporations running them. Some per-
sons are under the delasiOp that recent statutes
made these things unlawful Not at all They
were unlawful from the beginning The fact
ike the dirt roads that run alongside them
became so far forgotten by some people that
they thought IL WAS meddlesomeness to interfere
with the management of them by the people in
control of them. Do they not them, and
may not one do as he likes with his own? they
asked.
This is an old and arrogant question but II
was never true of the ownership of private
property even, let alone being true of public
highways or public property. No new laws
were needed 10 make free passes and freight
rate faVo1itism illegal; we only needed statutes
TO make it criminal offence to grant them and
Jail those who should grant them.
Judge Gaynor then spoke Of the long neglect
OF government TO supervise and control the
management of the railroads, with the result
that the individual control of the railroad cor
I'orations throughout the country to do
As they liked with the roads, and said:
just think for minute of these public high
ways OF the country, open TO all absolutely
equal terns by the very law of their being being
used TO enable some fnen-a few nen--to destroy
their business rivals. drive them out of business
and beggar them and their families by means
of fayoritsm I'm freight rates. Tt is the basest-
do not hesitate to say the dastardy-
crime Of our day and generation What sort of
death do men expect TO die who have amassed
millions in that way7
Now, if give an illustration .t Is not for hold
Ing any one man up to reproach above others
About 1870 | went through the oil region of
Pennsylvania after coming home from school
There saw wilderness Of derricks spread out
over the country over wells and engines pump
ing oil Hundreds of people owned such wells
and were producing oil. In about five years all
of these wells had passed into the ownership of
one man or set of men. All the others had failed
and Joined those unfortunates who fall by the
wayside in the struggle for existence
nd why and how were those few men able
10 dig wells or pump oil or refine il anv better
than the hundreds of others? Not at ali Then
how Gid they ruin and drive every one out but
themselves? Why. they went to the few power
ful individuals who controlled the railroads and
pubic highways and conspired with them,