Year: 1869

y,
danger of defeat


Our Railroads and TeIegraphs-The Power


and Duty of Government.


The opinion that the time is approaching
when the government will have to take control
Of both the telegraph and railroad systems of
the country is gaining ground. One United
States Senator, at least, has publicly declared
his conviction that II must be so. We refer to
the speech of Mr.. Carpenter at the State Fair
in Wisconsin. The same opinion has been ex-
pressed over and over again in our editorial
columns. These two mighty agencies Of
modern civilization control to great extent
and are destined to control the industrial
interests, all the communications and the
interior commerce of the people. Under the
control of private individuals or corporations
the object is, of course, to squeeze as much as
possible out of the public which is compelled
to use the telegraph and railroads. This is
self-evident and needs no argument to show
it. There is hardly one of the great telegraph
and railroad corporations that has not watered
its stock and largely increased it over the
capital originally invested and the cost Of its
works. The stock at present, in some cases,
is three times the amount Of the cost. Where
only ten millions of dollars have been actually
expended the stock Is thirty millions. And it
is upon this inflated stock that the telegraph
or railroad lines are made to pay handsome
dividends; consequently the people have to
pay treble rates. No one objects to pay fair
or even profitable rates on the capital actually
invested, but this enormous tax on an inflated
or watered stock is monstrous oppression
of the public for the benefit of few indi-
viduals. The argument has been used
that these corporations have q right
to make as much out Of their
business, though it may be twenty, thirty,
forty or more per cent on the money they
have expended, as people have in any other
kind of business. But it is not 80. Indi-
yiduals trading with each other or with
merchants can make their own bargains.
People have no power over telegraph or rail-
road corporations They have to pay what
ever is demanded. However exorbitant the
charges may be they have no alternative or
redress. Then, nearly all the charters for
these works are sought for of the Legislatures
and obtained with a view to the public good.
True, that is lost sight Of, and only the private
interests OF the corporators and stockholders
are considered afterwards but this does not
change the fact that the charters were
obtained and granted on the pretence OF
serving the public. In very many cases, too,
these works have been constructed in part by
the property of the people, as in the grants of
public lands for that purpose. Besides It is
the duty Of the government to protect the
people where they cannot protect themselves
and where the community at large are directly
and deeply interested. These great works, in
which every man, woman and child is con-
cerned, are placed beyond the limits Of mere
private business and become matter for
government control or supervision.


As to the power of the general government
over the telegraphs and railroads there can be
no question. The third article, section eight,
Of the constitution of the United States
says :-"Congress shall have power to regu-



There is no mistaking this language; and no
one will have the hardhood to deny, we sup
pose, that the business carried on by the
railroads and telegraphs from one State to
another and throughout all the ramifcations
of the republic is commerce among the several
ton. II that be not we do not
know what commerce Is. II matters not
whether freight or passengers be carried by
ships and boats or by railroads from one State
to another; 1t is commerce all the same. Nor
is the transmission of messages by telegraph
of business among them but a part OF the com
merce of the country. Clearly Congress has
the power to regulate commerce through
these agencies just as much as to regulate it
through our shipping or in any other way
But 1t has been said the exercise of this power
over railroads and telegraphs would centralize
the government too much, check private
enterprise and endanger liberty. This does not
follow necessarily. The control of the Post
| Office has no such effect. Nor would the
possession aud absolute control of the tele-
graphs by government be any more danger
ous IT the possession and same control over
the railroads be deemed too great an under
taking and too difficult to manage by govern
ment there Ia no reason they should not be
under its supervision, and that general law
should not be passed regulating their business
and tariff of charges. Looking at the magni-
tude OF the railroad and telegraph systems and
their increasing power over all the industrial
interests Of the country, it is evident the time
is not far off when either they must control
the government or the government control
them. The question is, what does the public
good cah for4 To this there can be but one
| anawar Tho g0yernmant has the nowar "a