Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1913-06-05

coast between Portland on the north
and the Mexican border on the south,
a distance as great as from Maine TO
Florida, and In addition thereto. every
regular line Of steamships operating
out ofsthe Pacific coast ports south OF
Puget Sound, mail lines plying be-
tween San Francisco and Panama, and
freight and passenger carriers running
between New York City, Havana, New
Orleans and Galveston. The Southern
Pacific, Kentucky corporation,
through an extensive system OF stock
ownerships and leases, controlled a
plexus OF railroads extending from Og-
den, Utah, to San Francisco. and lines
radiatlng from that city TO Portland,
Oregon, and through the States Of Cal
ifornia, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas
and Louisiana into Mexico, and line
of Steamship plying between Calves
ton and New Orleans to New York and
Havana.
In the words of the present Score
tary OF the Interior: "Mr. Hartman
may journey by steamship from New
York to New Orleans, thence by rail
| to San Francisco, across the Pacific
| Ocean to China. Returning by anoth-
| er route to the United States, may go
| to Ogden by any one of three rail
| lines, and thence to Kansas City OF
| Omaha, without leaving the deck or
| platform Of a carrier which he con-
trolls and without duplicating any part
of his Journey"
| 1t will be seen that these wicked
| and appalling conspiracies to control
! all the common carriers between the
| two oceans could be contaminated only
| by the organization of holding compa-
MES; could exist only by the express
mandate Of the State in which they
were Incorporated.
Three of these monstrous monopo-
lies owe their existence to the consent
and approval, If not the connivance,
of the Governors of the States of Mas
sachusetts, Utah and Kentucky. For
their parts in this drama of guilt and
plumber, the Executives of Utah and
Massachusetts have been pitilessly pill
loried by an outraged and indignant
public. The Governor of Kentucky,
Immediately upon his retirement from
Office, having become the retained at
torney of railroad corporation, the
beneficiary of much legislation enacted
with his approval, comment upon his
attitude toward such concerns seems
/
superfuous
Judge Farrar, President of the
Bar Association of America, in
one of the most remarkable ad-
dresses ever delivered in the English
tongue, voiced the deserved abhor-
renee in which such legislation Is
held, when he said: Whether these
enormous corporations are formed by
original interpretations or by CONSOLE
dations, by merger or by the holding
OF the. capital stock of other corpora
lions. the economic result Is the same.
- To my mind. the most VI
cious Of all the provisions In the stat
utea above enumerated Is the one au-
thorixing one corporation TO own and
vote stock In another. This provision
Is the mother Of the holding company
and the trust. II provides method
for combining under one management
and control corporations from one end
OF the nation to another. One OF the
most remarkable OF these stock-hold-
ing statutes Is that passed In the State
of Utah, giving TO Utah Railroad Com
panies a power to acquire stock In
other corporations so broad and I'M
limited that under II a Utah railroad
company can acquire and control the
stock Of all transportation corpora
! lions by land, river, lake or sea, In the
United States. The only linn
itation on this grant is that it shall
not extend to the ownership of stock
or securities of a parallel or compel
ling line or railroad situated within the
. State Of Utah. When you remember
that Utah is the domicile of the Union
/, Pacific Railroad Company and that
the statute was passed after that COM
pawn acquired large blocks OF stock
! in eight other great railroad systems,
one might discern in this legislation
the lions paw, the master hand OF the
now deceased President of this com
lpany"
Let il be remembered that lion
usually has more than one paw, and
that the same thing had been done
for the same man and for the guilty
lcorporate twin OF the Union Pacific
d by an Ex-Governor of Kentucky.
! The Boston G. Maine Railroad Com
pany, deliberately planned for the
q thunder of the carriers of New Eng
land, was organized in open and nag
rant defiance Of the law, the Legisla-
+ ture of that great State having pre-
J. yiously provided that no railway cor
lporation subject to its control should
I hold the stock of another without its
+ express consent When the extent OF
Mr.. Morgan's and Mr.. Mellen's opera
3 ltions became known, the people arose
: in indignant protest.
! Additional legislation was enacted,
! and the aid of the Federal Government
! having been successfully invoked, the
I dissolution of the company was de-
9 manded, in a suit filed by the Attor-
ney General for that purpose.
!, The people having been lulled into
D a fatal sense of security by the false
! promises of these guilty promoters,
y the President of the New York, New
Haven & Hartford began by cunning,
sly, insinuating art" to deceive and
& debauch the Governor and the Legis.
e lators of the State.
D Desperate. driven to the wall, real
, lizing that the whole nefarious plot was
+ rendered vain and abortive. unless the