Year: 1870




The hope that the bill to incorporate the


Arcade Railroad Company would not pass the
Lower House OF tho Legislature WAS based
upon a mistaken faith In the motives OF
Assemblymen. The bill went through at the
right moment as readily end easily as Harle-
ouin slips through any one Of the traps in the
side Of the scene when the word Is given, and
a sufficient number of Assemblymen have done
their part. as q sufficient number Of Senators


previously did theirs, to give the measure the
force of law. Here Is another illustration of
the impossibility Of opposing successfully any
impedimentto to the progress Of grand railroad
operation when 1t has fairly taken up its line
of advance--another instructive exhibition to
the people how insatiate and irresistible is this
monster Of railroad monopoly that seizes and
swallows up everything. Broadway Railroad
bills have previously been in Albany by the
their passage through both houses would be
served out by the bushel without counting but
they did not pass for 1t was matter Of posi-
tive knowledge that the people desired to
keep that one street Of the city free from the
possession of any corporation, free for the
common general use Of the public, and, there
fore, it was clear that every vote cast for such
a measure must be corrupt vote; pur-
chased vote; a vote representing the perjury
and deliberate betrayal of the trust Of the
man who cast it. Although there were plenty


of members who were venal, and not morally


above this fragrant perjury, yet they did not


care to publish and advertise their infamy,
rs such vote would have done, and 80 the
Broadway Railroad bills always came to
naught.


Yet now the Legislature passes something
infinitely worse than any mere Broadway rail
road bill that was ever before it, 1t not only
gives the complete possession of the street to


q monopoly, but it authorizes the monopolists
to tear up the street, to scoop 1t out, cart
away its surface, turn it into
ditch, make it sort Of stupendous
metropolitan Dutch Gap canal; and
in addition to this makes a free gift to the
same monopoly of the whole or the greater
part of every public place on the line of this
street, including in the number that battery
which Joseph Bonaparte offered to cover with
Spanish miled dollars for title. Some legis-
lators seemed no longer to fear the infamy of
voting for such measure; no longer dreaded
it should be publicly known that they served
private master when they had sworn to serve
the people; and this must be attributed to the
growing corruption of the times, and to the
fact that the people are no longer represented
in the Legislature to the fact, indeed, that
these grasping railroad monopolies buy up
nominating conventions and send their own
men to places in the Legislature. The body
that is supposed to represent the dignity,
political power and corporate capacity of
the people represents instead merely the
greed and corrupt readiness of the aggre-
gated railroad mon0polies. Several times
we have pointed to the tendencies
of these great monopOlies-these vast
concentrations Of power and capital that
threaten the future of the people with a
danger greater than any the world ever suf
ferred from the tyranny of kings. When we
consider how much the railroad has become



piness of the people, and consider further into
how few hands are gathered oil the enormous
power of this machinery of civilization, we
look around to see what means is left to |
society to control the railroad corporations |
when their demands shall pass all reasonable |
limit. There is the power to regulate by law |
all their actions. But what broken reed is |
lance Of straw, when we already
see that these corporations shuttle our Legisla-
lures in their hands like 80 many packs of
greasy cards and rattle majority like loaded
dice! What is the limit of their power?
People have looked on to see railroad corpo-
rations fching the popular domain with the
assistance Of Congress, and thought that the
gift of those square miles of wilderness
was barren one at best; but what will they
think now when they see great railroad
monopolist demanding and receiving from his
legislative creatures the gift Of this great,
rich, populous, metropolitan city? Here is the
most pregnant present subject for popular
thought.


But there is still one possibility in the career
of this great iniquity-the Arcade Railway.
It has yet to pass an ordeal that there is excel
lent reason to regard as more severe than all
others. 1t must 60 through the Governors
hands; and it is still to be said that Governor
Hoffman will be alone responsible for the con-
sequences if this bill becomes law. 1t
can receive validity only from his signature.
1t is a dead scrap Of worthless paper now, and
his hand put to it may give it the life and
power and sanction of a legal decree; but
that hand withheld, it will remain dead, harm