Arizona republican., 1910-10-26
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
PHoENEx. ARIz., OCTOBER 26, 1910
The Railroads and the People.

PreSl0ent Mellen or lne boSton 0 Maine railroad has announced that his company will take no part what ever in the politics of New Hamp- shire this year.
 MT. Mellen shows wisdom. He would show still more wisdom if he should make the announcement-and stick by it-that his company had definitely and finally withdrawn from politics in every state.
 Of course it is understood by all that railroads are not "in politics" because they like to be. It is the belief of railroad managers that the interests of their shareholders would suffer. material injury from unjust legislation and from unjust actions of public officers, if the railroads did not take an active hand in the polit- ical game.
 But it is a pet theory of The Re
 
 could safely depend upon the fairness of the people and the force of public opinion for protection from vicious legislation, if the people could only know that the railroads were no long CT doing politics.
 The American people are honest, and they want to be fair. There has grown up, undoubtedly, a vast amount of prejudice against the rail- roads This prejudice frequently de- velopes into proposals of drastic and unfair legislation, and railroad off cials believe that it is only by con- stant vigilance that most of such legislation is prevented. But, con- trary to the belief which seems to prevail among railroad men, the pop ular prejudice against railroads is not based nearly so much upon ques- tions of rates-although these ques- just complaint-as upon the partic- ipation of railroads in politics.
 Very possibly there Is exaggera- tion in the popular mind as to the extent to which railroad companies attempt to control primaries, nomi- hating conventions, elections and leg islatures. But certainly there has been a sufficient basis of truth in the charges of manipulation by rail- road representatives in many states to create the prejudice which exists. Probably the most moving cause of the widespread demand for new sys- tems of government. all of this de- mand resting upon the proposition that control must be restored to the people" is the fixed belief in the public mind that something must be done to deprive great corporations of their power in politics.
 Possibly the absolute withdrawal of the railroads from politics in every state would result temporarily in un- just legislation, for the people would be slow to believe in the sincerity of claims that the withdrawal had taken place. But in time the situa- tion would right itself-because of the inherent honesty and fairness of the people.
 The time will never come when foolish legislation is not proposed and urged by somebody. But if the great railway companies were out of politics absolutely-if it were shown that they had discharged every polit- ical agent and were keeping aloof from conventions and elections and had no lobbyists around the legisla- tures-legftimate representatives of transportation interests could then safely and boldly appear before leg islative committees, and like other citizens, demand fair hearing on any question that affected their bus iness. And the results, we are con- fident, would be creditable to the fairness and good sense of the peo- ple's representatives. At any rate, we should like to see the experiment fairly tried upon a wider field than has been proposed by President Mellen.