New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-10-19
LETTING POLITICS ALONE.

LETTING Politics ALONE.
y letter from President Mellen to a Massa-
! chusetts correspondent has been quoted in the
! newspapers TO the effect that the New York.
| New Haven x Hartford Railway will In the
| future have no agents at the State House to
! look after its interests and that it has not
contributed to the present Massachusetts cam
| paign, i'll which it is deeply Interested nor
| sought in any way to influence the result. This
determination to keep out of politics is not an
| isolated instance; it is merely what public
vice companies all over the country are doing.
The old abuse, on whose ramificatiOns we are
getting light in the street railway investigation
in this city, is nearly thing of the past. Cor
poradons are longer defying public opinion.
corrupung legislatures and buying up political
machines. This states Public Service Com
missions act went through the Legislature
without scandal. and, though il is the most
important law affecting corporations passed in
a generation, we believe that no considerable
effort of the old sort made to defeat ii
or 10 amend it, That example in itself illus
trateS almost n revolution in the relations of
public service corporations to politics The
palmy days of the ''accelerator" are past, and
we hope that with them will disappear the
assumption on the part of public service COM
panies that they are under some unexplained
necessity to retain a large staff Of lawyers
with political connections. If there were no
other gain from the moral upheaval over the
conduct Of utilities corporations. their divorce
from politics would be well worth all the eff
forts that have been put forth to correct the
old evils
Letting politics alone Will help to restore the
corporations 10 public confidence and will re
move the excuse for much Of the irrationaity
in the anti-corporaton crusade. Many of the
legislators who have been most active and gone
to the furthest extreme in anti-rallway law
making are men who are recognized as for
mer political agents employees of the rail
ways. When the public temper changes and
Il man with such n record sees that TO keep his
hold upon his constituents he must move
against the railways he is pretty sure TO out
Herod Herod. If he Iags behind the dema-
goEues he viii be accused of favoring the cor
porations. and his previous activity on their
side will lend color 10 the accusation.
1t is in the Southern states that the antl-rail-
road agitation has been most violent and most
irrational and 1t is there that the activity of
the railroads has been most pronounced. In
many Of the less developed Southern states
the railways until recently have been the only
great enterprise. They have employed counsel
very much the Metropolitan Street rail
ways were shown in Thursdays testimony 10
have employed counsel except that in the
Southern states every politician of prominence
"a
leaders Of the parties were counsel of the
railway. When a Governor was elected he
was almost always former attorney Of the
railway The Speaker Of the House and the
leaders of the Senate had very likely been In
its employ. The members had got some emol-
ument from II, or had friends or relatives on
its payroll or expected something from IT, Such
men as these felt that they could not afford
when the public suddenly became critical of
the activity of corporations IN politics. 10 re-
sist unreasonable rate making projects. Gov
ernOr Glenn Of North Carolina. for instance at
the time of his election was an attorney of the
Southern Railway. When the fare laws were
before the Legislature and the public mind
was excited he could have stood out for sanity
only at the expense Of his political future
His motive would have been mlsconstrucd. He
would have been set down rs a friend If not
something worse Of the railways. and his old
connection would have proved ii In the public
mind. We believe that this leaning over back
ward 10y Legislators and other officials who
had perhaps in their time been Accelerated.
and were determined to prove themselves
above temptation was responsible for much of
last winters extravaganza. If the corpora
tions keep ont Of politics # VIII be possible for
an official to resist insanity without being ac-
cused or suspected Of corruption That VIII be
a gain for the public, and the corporations, too