Continuous railroad connections exist between Maine and California, between Minnesota and Louisiana, which have been built by private enterprise, and are still maintained and conducted by combinations of private enterprise. These, with their connections, form a net work that penetrates every section of the whole country, all parts of which system are conducted as nearly as possible, considering the variety of management, with regard to the harmonious working of the whole as a general railroad system of the country. The representatives of the several roads meet and arrange terms of transfer and connection, first, to accommodate themselves; second, the public which patronizes them (be it especially remembered that the public welfare is always secondary); and thus it comes that that which is made the duty of the government to guard with jealous care is subserved to the interests of a company of incorporated individuals, whose profits, drained from the productive interests of the country, amount in many instances to an enormous per cent per annum upon the original costs of the enterprises This is not the greatest good to the greatest number. It is the greatest good to the smallest number at the expense of the greater number. The public is hoodwinked into the toleration of their extortions by fictitious arrays of figures, and by the increase of the “watering” of their capital stock whenever an eight per cent. dividend will not consume their unexpended balances.
Again, there are railroads of great importance to the general public whose earnings are not sufficient to make any returns to stockholders, scarcely sufficient to meet current expenses, and yet the public welfare would not permit of their discontinuance.
The same line of policy that controls the postal service should be pursued by government in regard to railroads. None now think of intrusting that very important department of the government to private enterprise. Is the transportation of the public itself of less vital and general importance than its thoughts and wishes are, that it should be obliged to rely upon private enterprise to accomplish its welfare, and to obtain it be subject to its extortions? The custody of transportation of all kinds by government would insure regularity, harmonious operation, safety and dispatch, at minimum cost, to all whose pursuits, interests or comfort, incline or compel them to its use. If the sphere of government is to be determined upon principle, and it is the true principle for the government to conduct the postal service, to the end that the public welfare be subserved, then the same principle determines that railroads and telegraphs should also be conducted by government to the same end.
The time was, when it was necessary to the general good for the government to guarantee protection and even assistance to enterprises that should introduce these improvements into the country. The country needed them. Government, not understanding its true relations to the people, failed to provide them. Private enterprise, more sagacious and more perceptive of the actual demands of the age, stepped forward, and, taking advantage of governmental supineness, developed the true greatness of the country. The time has now come, and the government is in position and understanding, to not only guarantee all needed internal improvements to the public, but also to take charge of those already existing, and to conduct them in the interests of the people.
These improvements are not patents that should forever remain hereditary charges upon the industry of the country. They are granted privileges, made by the government to promote the public welfare, and not for the continuous private gain of wealth and power. Let a limitation be put upon these patented privileges, so that the public good may be still further promoted. Let government purchase what are already in operation and construct others, as demanded, and conduct them all under one grand system, to subserve the interests, necessities and comforts of the people, which it is its duty to provide for, even if in exceptional instances it be at the expense of the public, as in some instances it is in sparsely populated districts regarding the postal service. Let the same rule of action that governs this service be applied to telegraphs, railroads and all improvements that are public in their character. Let the present owners and conductors of them become the servants of the government and the people, instead of remaining, as now, their masters, thus forcing them, by the only possible way, to comply with the interests and demands of the general welfare.
Besides, these gradually consolidating interests are becoming too powerful and selfish to longer allow of the government or the people regarding them with indifference. Even now they control a deal of legislation by the power they possess. Unless soon dispossessed of the means of increasing their power and influence, they will become greater than the government, and even dangerous to liberty. The national banks are powerful enough to feel they can dictate to Congress. What might not a grand consolidation of railroads, representing thousands of millions of dollars, be able to do, if left to present tendencies? This is a matter of most serious import, which is tending to a despotism more intolerable than that exercised by any of the monarchies of the Old World—the despotism of capital over labor.
This despotism is making the productive interests of the country utterly subservient to the power they have created, fostered and protected, which should forever remain their servant instead. These improvements are demanded by all the growing interests of the country that express themselves through commerce between the several States, and it is the duty of Congress to “regulate” them. It has the power. The remedy is required. Let it be applied, and at once, so that the greatest and most beneficial of all the many systems of internal improvements any country possesses, both for the country as a whole, and to the comforts of the people as individuals, may be conducted and extended in accordance with the interests and demands of the public welfare. Nor should there be any outcry raised against the purchase and control of railroads by government, as an unwarrantable interference with private rights. There are no such things as private rights when the public good stands in question. If the public good demands a new street through the most densely populated part of the city, the property of private citizens is condemned to its use, and damages assessed, from which the individual has no appeal. The same rule must apply to all property that the public demands for the promotion of its interests, telegraphs and railroads not excepted.
LIMITS AND SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT.
[Revised from the New York Herald of July 11, 1870.]