The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-18

l strained becomes one Of the most danger ous clements which stand in the way ol l the worlds progress. It is cnpidlty Wllh 1 the power and opportunity and disposi- l tion to tax. It is cupidity With the enn- bodiment of power and opportunity ana the assertion of a Hartman, .l can buy the legislature; I can buy Congress; can buy the judiciary It Is cupidity so circumstanced, which has created the rail- road problem of Alabama.
 The railroads have rendered possible this development, this wealth; eoneeaed. But this is one side The other side IS that the people have done the developing, have done the work, created the product. made the freight and pay the freight an q without the peoples part all this railroad building and railroad running would stop. There would be nothing in it. The rail- road property would be valueless. Clear ly two sides, and yet i'm Alabama when the price for the railroad service Is fXed and the rules governing the business ar rangement made, only one side-the rail- roads-have a voice, only one side makes a price or a. condition. This statement Of facts creates the railroad problem. Could the railroads trust the shipper to name the price of the freight? Would the rail- roads be willing for the freight payers of the state to hold a convention to fix without any restrictive power the freight rates they should pay? Could the rail- roads safely trust the cupidity of the shipper, believing that he would name d rate fair to both sides? suppose a dele gatlon of Alabama shippers call to seq MT Hanson of the Central, MT. Finley of the Southern, MT. Milton H. Smith of the Louisville and Nashville, with that proposition? There would be demand for some alenist-Dementia Alabama, the new disease Yet that is exactly the right. the power the railroads of Alabama exercise over the freight-payers of Ala bama. The annual service assessment of S35, ,OOO, GOO out of the properties of the state without hindrance, and what is the price of the service? Cupidlty's unhindered price-what the freight will stand. Is it safe to trust people and trust business to such conditions? History has not yet furnished a successful instance.
 The railroad problem Is largely an epi- tome of Mr. Harrlman's terse statements, as quoted by President Roosevelt in the fIarriman-Roosevelt controversy: T can buy the legislature; I can buy Congress; I can buy the judiciary Mir. Hartman did not mean that he could make these purchases as the railroad promoters bought the negro the carpet baggers, the scallawag legislators in 1867 to 1874, but that his railroad alignments would forge railroad environment around legis-  lators and judiciary.
 To demonstrates: Suppose you were try ing to enact anti-railroad Legislation and that the speaker of the house of represen- tatves and the president pro tenn of the senate were railroad lawyers Suppose active leaders on the floor and the chair men of important committees were rail- road-environed men, the same condition as to the federal Congress and Senate. Suppose a majority of the railroad com mission was made up of the same ilk. Suppose the judge before whom was being tried statute or case which was re- garded as adverse to the railroads, had been in their employ a series of years. All of these men might be ever so sincere, ever so honest; yet they would generally fall under the thralldom of MT. Harri- mans statements. These men might feel themselves thoroughly and perfectly com potent to fill the above functions, and yet there is no trial judge but who would allow them to be stricken from jury venlre when railroad case was to be tried.