Year: 1873

T. NAV he some consolation to Americans
who watch with alarm the progress OF our
railway corporations towards irresponsible
power, and who are just now bewidered by.
the apparent revival of the Pennsylvania
Central in the very house OF its foes, at
Trenton, to know that in other countries the
same difficulties in the relations of the rail-
ways to the State are also perplexing states
men and economists. In England for some
time the Board of Trade and the Court OF
Common Pleas have both held certain powers
of supervision and interference in railroad and
canal matters but they seem to have been
ill-defned and useless In practice A bill has
lust passed to its second reading in the House
of Commons which attempts the same solution
of the problem suggested by us some weeks
ago. 1t creates tribunal of three persons,
one of whom ia to be lawyer and
another railway expert, before whom
the questions between the companies
and the public and between company and its
rivals are to be heard and decided. There
seems to be an apprehension in Parliament
that the bill is only "a feeble effort in the
" right direction that it will not secure an
efficient supervision, and that any commits
soners appointed under it will shrink from
the grave responsibilities which are certain to
fall upon them. They will have to determine
when it shall be allowed for rival companies
to amalgamate TO supervise rates OF fare and
freight to enforce regulations for the safety
and convenience of the public to decide quar-
rels between connecting lines to prevent the
undue fayoring of one company by another at
the expense of the community to see that due
diligence is used in the transportation OF goods
and passengers, and generally to compel a
compliance with the conditions of the charters.


These are duties which require the highest
executive ability and the widest experience,
and the compensation which the bill offers OF
$4,000 for the Chief Commissioner and f2,OO0
for the others seems, in England, entirely In
ADEQUATE. A man who is fit to be COM
missioner is fit to be railway president, and
could probably command, in the service of
one of the great companies, almost any salary
he chose to ask. Even some of the members
who sustained the bill in the Commons pro-
fessed that they accepted it merely as p's
aller, with no confidence that 1t would do
much good. "a still greater question has
Z" been suggested" said Mr.. Hunt, in the
course of the debate, "namely, whether In
the progress of combination the companies,
in course of time might not become
so great and 80 powerful as to rem
" der it expedient on political, not CONNER
"cial grounds to change the relations between
" the railways and the State. The purchase OF
railways by the State was most strongly urged
"by Captain Tyler, who put it in very terse
90 way. That gentleman said, IF the State
""does not manage the railways, the railways
"swill soon manage the State The difficulties
"of State purchase are no doubt very for
"midable politically and financially, and
" quite assent to the course which the joint
COMMITTEE took in passing it over at the time.
| &" But | hold that the consideration of the ques-
"tion cannot be very much longer deferred.
"Day by day public opinion is growing more
"and more in favor of the purchase; and in
"my opinion the only way in which the public
can be fairly, properly, and advantageousy
dealt with is by the State taking over the
L" administration of the railways"


In this country we have reached, if not
passed the point which Captain Tyler viewed
with so much alarm. The.railways have long
"managedn the State, and it may be ques
toned whether in several conspicuous instances
they have not come actually to own it, Tren-
ton is called upon now to shed some light
on this latter point. If the bill in Parliament
become law, it will be of the greatest in
terest TO us to watch its efficiency. 1t conveys
power enough, if it can be properly enforced,
To reform the abuses and avert the dangers
of our own system and we take it to be
generally admitted by this time that railway
remedy of some sort cannot be much longer
postponed.