But the Southern Railroad clung to the subsidy.
It needed the money, as Meredith of Virginia once plaintively stated in the House.
The P. O. Department no longer asked it or advised it—but certain congressmen from the South who are ravenously fond of free passes stood by the hungry corporation, and at every session of Congress this subsidy is voted.
The false pretense, used as an excuse, is that it secures fast mail for the South.
There is no truth in the statement. Under an ordinary contract for mail carriage, the government can secure precisely the same service as the railroad gives in return for the subsidy. In other words, the $142,000 is a gift to the Wall Street Monarch, J. P. Morgan.
Hon. James H. Blount of Georgia was for many years Chairman of the Committee on Post-Offices and Post Roads.
He understood every detail of that service. He bitterly opposed this subsidy. I myself heard him denounce it in the most wrathful manner; and he declared on the floor of the House that the people got nothing whatever for it.
It was a donation—nothing more.
Blount’s place in Congress is now partially filled by a different kind of man—and the indignant protest of the South against the contemplated steal was not voiced by him or by any other member from Georgia.
That honor was won by Tennessee.