New York Dispatch

A DANGER TO FREEDOM

Although positively refusing to advance the pay of the freight handlers from one dollar and seventy cents to two dollars a day the railroads coolly advance the price of carrying freight. This they do against the protest of their customers. As usual, the railroad managers act without regard to public convenience or to justice. They pay a miserable pittance to their employees while they themselves are growing enormously wealthy. As the railroads have been granted great favors by the State they are in a different position from ordinary corporations and owe service to the people. The ordinary corporation is composed of men who provide all the means for conducting business. They buy land, erect buildings, and pay for everything they possess. The railroads have been given the right of way through the most fruitful portions of the State, they have been permitted to seize upon private property at their own valuation, and they pay nothing to the State for the great privileges they enjoy. Under such circumstances it would seem but natural that the railroad managers should endeavor to work for the good of the people as well as their own interests. Instead of so doing they lord it over their customers and give no heed whatever to the advancement of trade, to the security and comfort of passengers, or to the just claims of their workmen. The railroad corporations of this country have become the masters of the people. They buy up Legislatures, pass such laws as they see proper, and own the judges whose duty it is to enforce the laws. Have the people no way in which to protect themselves from the exactions and tyranny of railroad corporations? We think they have. The lands which they occupy belong to the people, and if they see proper such lands can be repossessed by them. They can, also, rescind the many privileges granted to the roads, and issue new charters by which railroad corporations can be held to a strict accountability for their treatment of the public. Some means must be taken to control the giant corporations of this country. It was thought when the law of primogeniture was discarded by this country that it would be impossible for immense fortunes to continue in the hands of a few individuals. But corporations have taken the place of the law of primogeniture. No matter who dies the corporation remains, continually growing in wealth. To-day the railroad corporations are a standing threat to the freedom of the country and to the continuance of our republican form of government. We cannot forget that during the riots of 1877 some of the leading railroad men said that it was time we had an emperor. When they have gathered to themselves the entire wealth of the country—and from present appearances the time does not look distant—how long will they permit the people to enjoy even the semblance of freedom? We must curb the growing power of railroad corporations if we would preserve our liberties.