The Morning Astorian

GOVERNMENT RAILROADS.
Tacoma Ledger.

For years there has been some speculation as to the ultimate ownership of all railroads by the government. Perhaps this will be the solution of the traffic problem. Proponents of the theory have hailed the consolidation of lines as an involuntary move in the direction. They argued that when the railroads had got into such shape that they could easily be handled, the government would take them over. As to any system of compensation, they did not go into details. Indeed, this phase of the subject seems not to have occurred to them. The men who built the lines have certain rights. In some instances the lines were constructed by fraud, and the government swindled into paying unearned subsidies, but, nevertheless, the ostensible owners have more than a shadow of title. They can hardly be asked as a business proposition to relinquish this.

According to an alleged plan just made public, Rockefeller, Harriman, Vanderbilt, Gould and Morgan contemplate, after having caught and branded every railway in the United States, to pass the lot to the government, with their own fancy price affirmed.

This they will not do; the government has faults, but it was not born so recently as yesterday and it is not an aggregation of suckers. The gentlemen mentioned are, financially, a husky lot. In the republic, however, are some 76,000,000 other people who do not like them particularly, and who, while admiring their skill, have not the slightest confidence in their probity. Any one of the several mentioned would skin your Uncle Sam as willingly and by methods as risque as employed by the shell and pea artist. While they content themselves with playing a big game with individual victims, and cappers that lure the lambs, they will be tolerated, but they must not try these games on the people as a whole.

If the government ever takes possession of the railroads it will not be in response to any sentiment, however strong this sentiment may have become, but by reason of some sudden exigency. Then there will be a process similar to condemnation as this prevails when a public utility is about to be extended, and the roads will be taken in at the valuation set by appraisers who will not be under the influence of the benign potentates mentioned. In fact, the potentates will not be considered; they may like it, or they may do the other thing. They will, if the crisis arrive, find themselves small potatoes and will be swept aside as of less value than so many trackwalkers.