Year: 1875

We think the government of the United


States had better stop going to law will


the railroads which have been the object.


of its bounty. The Court of Claims ha.


just decided against it in the sEit Of the
| Union Pacific, in which the question oil


earnings and interest was involved The


reasoning of the Court on the subject cul-


minated in a dilemma for the government,


which is thus stated: "Either You have


wilfully withheld the employment from the
contractor, or have been unable to furnish it
to him. If the former supposition is the
fact, then the fault is your own, and You
cannot ascribe the wrong to one you con-
fess was always very willing to repay you
in the manner in which yonr agreement
prescribes. If the latter is the fact, thep
because the sources of payment you proyid-
ed disappointed you, and because the pay
ment you elected to take gives you more of
transportation services than you really re-
quire, you are trying to shift your loss to
other shoulders than your own" Con-
scious that it was setting forth transac-
tion very much in the nature of "heads I
win, tails you lose," for the government,
the Court added: "Your misfortune is
really this that you have made an improvi-
dent bargain


This decision, Of course, takes in the case
of the Central as well as the Union Pacific.
If the telegraph has given it correctly, it
means that the government is bound to
take out the interest on the bonds advanced
in transportation. 1t has in an indirect
way been trying to do all that it could in
that behalf. The Secretary of War has
been ordering troops backwards and for
wards until he has in measure exhausted
the resources of his department. But with
the kindly. assistance of The Modoc war and
the Indian troubles in Arizona, the govern
ment has not been able to fill out the mar
gin of transportation which isallotted to it,
According to this decision, if it fails to do
SO, the loss is its own. This puts an ell
tirely new phase ON the railroad complca-
tion. These beneficiaries have been claim
ing that they were not to pay the interest |
on the bonds which they received until
their maturity. This was regarded by the
country at large as q subterfuge. The man |
or corporation that proposes to pay inter-
est and principal on a long credit in lump
is man or corporation that is scheming to
evade responsibility. But it would seem
that these corporations are not to pay any
interest at all. The Government has to
pay it and take it out in service. IF the
service is more than it needs the loss is to
fall on itself. What it has got for the SUBJ
sidy is an annual transportation credit
which is as rigid as the laws Of the Medes
and Persians. Everything in the series of
which had for it's result the
establishment Of a railroad across the con-
,inent that makes for the benefciaries is
and angeable-everything
Intended to protect the government loose,
easily brushed aside, nndefnable and of no
account. No one therefore should be sur
orised at the remark of the Court: "Your
is really this, that you made an
bargain"


When the rulings of the Courts are taken
nto consideration, there will be no difficult
n accepting this as the statement of a gen.
raj truth. Thele IS an old saying that
the lawyer who manages his own case
las a fool for client" TO this another
will now have to be added-that the sover-
ign who goes to law in his own courts is
ure to get the worst of it. No decisions
we're ever rendered SO entirely at variance
With the popular notions Of common JUS
ice as those bearing upon these subsidized
ailroads. 1t would seem that for the gov
rment to extend aid in the nature of loan
0 these corporations, is not only to lose the
honey, but to render itself liable to pay out
lore for the privilege. Railroad law is the
ast graft on our system Of jurisprudence.
it is defnable it is that no individual or
ody has any rights which the railroad is
ound to respect. The whistle of the loco
lotive ordinarily startles the temple of JUS
ice out of its senses. The railroad is not
xpected to fulfill any obligation, but when
comes up for taxation it is resolved into
lmber and cd iron