The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-11-13
TINE TO TAKE COUNSEL.

and carrier. Terminals are glutted
and at the intermediate points there
Is congestion, for the reason that rail
road facilities have not kept pace with
the growth of the country's business.
Interest is not limited to the carriers
and their customers. They are, OF
course, more Immediately concerned,
but the matter is of consequence to
CONSUMERS. And, as all consume, the
matter is one of moment to every man,
woman and child in the United States.
The case can be otherwise summar-
lied. 1t can be contracted into the
proposition that II the country wants
to make the worst instead of the best
of its possibilities, it will legislate on
the assumption that the big stick was
created expressly for the purpose OF
hitting a railroad head wherever and
whenever it happens to be within
striking distance AS there are mons
tiers for whom even big stick has
few terrors, the weapons might be ex-
changed for bktering ram, lest the
effect produced be insufficiently eff
fective.
This suggestion is somewhat belat-
ed. 1t is behind time. There is hard
| ly a railroad man in the country who
has the temerity to say word in
his own behalf or to exploit himself
as other than a sort of a fugitive from
| Justice. There Is not a railroad in
the country which has not been har-
ried until, crediting 1t with frame
of mind, 1t Is more or less abjectly
apologizing for its own existence.
This for good and sufficient reason.
| TT -, hn hi H.
| ington has been supplemented by the
battering ram elsewhere.
For the crusader, glut has no sig
lnificance. For, says Governor Glenn,
congestion is a mere trick and device.
For legislatures and executives, ter
minals choked to suffocation are
another proof of criminality, another
provocation for indictment. 1t is the
function of railroad to carry. Why
not make every failure an offense and
prosecute accordingly? And why not
sue every company for damages fo1
every ounce of undelivered produce
which has persisted? What is worth
doing, is worth doing well.
Undeniably, it was time to call a
halt to the lawbreakers, to the re-
baters, and to the looters who manip-
ulated stocks, but the railroads are
innocent for the ridiculously simple
reason that they cannot be guilty. II
would be absurd to invest with re-
sponsibility for wrong doing the shiI
which mutineers convert into pirate
craft. In the name of, but not by
corporation, can a crime be commit
ted. Possibly, there are grand jurors
who would indict locomotive seizeo
by train robbers.
There are wrongs to be righted, bu
the ship need not be scuttled. L
there are robbers to be captured, the
locomotive need not be crippled. 4
clearly pertinent and timely sugges
ton is that those who represent the
people and those who are the Gus
tedians of the carriers create condi
lions preliminary to frank and fai
and impartial discussion, say at Wash
ington, of all the factors entitled tt
consideration. Debate might be pre-
coded by a generalization: The caus,
of the railroads is the cause of all.
Concede this at the outset
is proof against contradiction-ant
there is little doubt as to what woult
follow. Progress would be reported
until in the flux of controversy tn
question of federal VS.. state sovereign
ty projected itself. This is the sensi
tive spot Recently, Seth Low de
clared that the railroads themselve
had done everything to make Fed
eral control inevitable, having show
themselves, if not lawless, at leas
disposed to select the law they chos
to obey. He told much less than tn
whole truth.
Not because there have been law
breakers in the ranks of the railroa,
men is talk of federal control gath
ering force. With few exceptions
the carriers do an interstate business
They find themselves subject to dicta
ton which would carry few compiled
tions were they dealing with on
sovereign. They find themselves con
fronted by conditions involving con
tradiction in terms-at one and tn
same time, and in one and the sam
place, they encounter two sovereigns
Also they find that the mandate o
one is, in many instances, anything
but a duplicate of the command o
the other.
1t is poor consolation to remin,
one who wants to avoid the devil tina
the deep sea is at his disposal. TIL
part of the truth Mr.. Low permitte,
to remain untold is that lawlessnes
merely accelerated the inevitable
Within a short time passengers will
be carried from Brooklyn to tn
Quaker City without change of mo
tive power or seat. 1t is hardl
crowding the coming schedule to sa,
that they can lunch at home, go t,
Philadelphia and return in time 70
dinner. In the interval, they will
have been within the jurisdiction o
three sovereigns-New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Interference or obstruction by on
of the three sovereigns will not b
attempted. For obvious reasons, eacl
of the commonwealth concerned will
wink at the obliteration of state line
will make obeisance to forces wit
which they could quarrel only at tn
cost of supremacy. Such obeisanc
Is in point of fact compulsory, t.
which extent state sovereignty
nominal. Regulation worthy of tn
name must begin at one terminal an
end at the other. 1t must be federal
This not because of lawlessness, blu
because the lines, though clearl
drawn upon the map, are not visibl
in transit. When debate comes, dua
sovereignty will furnish more thai
enough material. In physics, it j
contended that there is room for blu
one thing at the same time in tn,
same place. The throne of one mon
arch is in jeopardy.-New York Sun