Year: 1871

pany every alternate section OF public land
that can be found in a strip eighty miles wide
and as long as the road. Under this section
they could get no land in Texas, but 1t is esti-
mated that they could get some twenty-six
eight authorizes the issue of more bonds, to
be secured by mortgages on the company's
property and rights Of property, of all kinds
and descriptions-real, personal and mixed
including its franchise as corporation; and,
as proof and notice Of its legal execution and
delivery, said mortgage shall be filed and
recorded in the Office Of the Secretary OF the
Interior" The exact language OF the section
is here quoted. 1t is constructed with espe-
.cial reference to trengtheaing the quasi en-
dorsement by the United States. Under this
section about forty million dollars more could
be issued, making eighty millions of dollars
provided for In the bill,


In view of the fact that six Of our great SUBJ
sidizsd corporations arc now represented at
Washington in endeavors to repudate their just
obligations to pay the interest on the bonds
already authorized and issHed by tie United
States it would seem to be wise for Congress
to shut right down here and now, and not to
authorize the issue of more bonds under any
circumstances. We want no more great
national corporations until we have little
further experience with those already in
existence.


Mr.. Dawes showed, in his admirable and
timely exposure Of the Chorpenning schems,
that the whole job was rushed through both
houses Of Congress in about nineteen hours.
The biz for tho repeal Of the income tax has
been nearly two years before Congress, and it
is doubtful whether it will pass this session.
Measures in the interest of the people pass
through Legislative bodies at snails' pace,
while specuators' jobs Of every kind are some
how put through with lightning speed. We
have been assured that the resolution Of the
Texas Legislature, favoring the passage of
what its opponents do not hesitate to call the
"Texas Pacific Job," and presented to the
House of Representatives by Connecticut
carpet-bagger, may be set down as regular
piece OF Chorpenningism The Senate will do
well to inquire whether, on the other hand,
the joint resolution of the Ohio Legislature,
recently read in the Senate, and similar reso-
lutions which have just been adopted by the
Legislatures of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and
several other States, all denouncing land
monopoly as great evil in opposition to the
spirit of our institutions, and especially the
placing large tracts of the public domain
under The control of railroad or other corpora
tions as impolitic and dangerous, should not
outweigh as samples Of real honest legislation
the jobbers' instructions which were rushed
through the Te xas Assembly


The Verdict ON the New Hamburg Dis


aster'


The twelve wise men who have been sitting
on the bodies of the New Hamburg victims
have rendered verdict worthy OF Dogberry
and his court. They find nobody on the oil
train to blame for allowing the initial accident
TO develop into the horror that it became, no one
personally liable for the absence of bell rope
on the oil train, 40 one responsible for allow
ing that train to so humping along over the
sleepers for a quarter of mile with broken
axle, and no one in fault for the failure to
signal the coming express in time. No, they
find every one and everything connected wit b
the oil train all right, and claim ''that the ex-
press train was a half mile from the obstruc-
ton when lrst sgnalled, and could have been
stropped provided ali the appliances had been
effective; that from some reason to the jury
unknown the patent brakes were not effectively
applied" So the blame all lies in the non
effective working of those patent brakes, or
else, by inference, the fireman, to whom en-
gineer Simmons gave his last order to ''Put on
the patents" is the man who failed in his
duty. He pulled in three yards Of the bell
cord which is used to put on the patents in the
few minutes during which he was racing
toward death; but no response was made to
his pulling-no sharp, sudden, irresistible
tension was put upon the wheels of his train
such as the powerful agency of steam has been
taught by human science to bring forth upon
such occasions of dire need as this
was-and, mindful of his own life,
the fireman lcaped into the river, where, from
his icy refuge, he saw Doc Simmons, with his
hand still upon the throttle, and twenty -onc
other human beings, 60 to their DEATH Could
he have succeeded in quitting on the patents =
If he had stuck to his work as Simmons did
or were the patents themselves in such an
ineffective shape that sticking to his post
would have been as useless as it was in the case
Of the engineer? These are questions that the
jury has failed to answer positively. They have
evaded them by the time-honored non-commit-
talism of all inquests-s'u unknown to the jury"
II the patents were not in order there is some
one positively to blame whom the jury should
have designated. Let us know if they had
been properly examined before the train left
New York, and if they were then found defec-
tive, let US know why they were not put in