Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1877 — Chic go Timer. M’DONALD OF INDIANA. [ARTICLE]

Chic go Timer. M’DONALD OF INDIANA.

United States Senator Joseph McDonald, of Indiana is In town, and stopping at the Grand Pacific for a fewfdays. He says that he had enough confidence In the State of Indiana to feel certain that she’d stay where he left her for a short time, so he run up here to do a little cheerful business in the United States Courts in the way of foreclosing a few mortgages on railroads. Talking of rrilroads brought up the labor questions, the riots, and mutters incident thereto. “Do you think THE LABOR QUESTION

will cut a big figure in the elections, senator? asked a Times reporter. “It certainly will. It will cut a big figure in the elections, and will no doubt be forced onCongres®. At any rate the railroad question will.— That’s certain. The fact is that we are at present suffering under a railroad syst in that is anomalous. It is peculiar to the country and peculiar because of our intricate state and federal relations. You see a railroad corporation is made by a state, and the rights which it as a corporation enjoys or the privileges it can commanfi extend only to the limits of the particular state from which it derives its corporate existence. Thus there is no uniformity about laws applying to a railroad which we will say, is a through line ami w hich extends across several states. Take, for instance, from here to New York. A line runs through five different states or local jurisdictions. The railroad law of each state is peculiar to itself. There may not be much difference . in most of them, perhaps, but that isn’t the point. What is needed and what must be secured is a law which shall insure the transportation of freight« ami passengers from one point to another with absolute er reasonable ♦certainty. As matters are at present there is always the inevitable conflict between the interests of the traveling and transporting public at large, the particular interests of the road and the local interests. ‘Then the railroad companies foster a class of employes that are very often iurehiss of local interests even when not actually inimical to them. They feel chut they belong to the Baltimore and Ohio, or the Michigan Central, or to such and such a line as a whole. They identify themselves and their interests with the line and not with the interests of the localities through which the line may run.— Thus there very often arises local irritations which need but the merest excuse to develop into serious difficulties. - These difficulties work injury to the interests of general travel and general transportation of freight, and of course indirectly the locality of the trouble suffers also in time. The system of railroad combinations has given to us direct travel and direct transportation from one part of the country to another. Thus the several corporations have really outgrown the limits of ‘he states from which they derived their existence in the first instance. Their lines and the lines through which through combinations are effected, go far beyond state control and state supervision.” “Where is THE GENERAL SUPERVISION

to come then?" “From the national government, clearly. The national government 3-ould exercise a general supervision over the through traffic on railroads. This supervision need not be extreme, ft should be equal to and in fact the > same as the federal p dice power over ' navigable rivers. That and nothing ' more would be sufficient to insure the ' pert nuance of contracts on the part of the railroad companies and on the j contrary protect the legal rights of j the toads from the violence of the , people. Something of this sort must | be done and although it is not an ea- , sy problem to elucidate by any means, yet it will be forced upon the atten- ■ tion of congress at an early day. The railroads are the highways "of the country; the companies’common carriers. There are principles involved in the matter which are above the elements of ordinary contracts. If a passenger behaves himself and pays his fare a railroad company has got I tc carry him whether they like to or ' not. lliey are common carriers and ! their lines now constitute the broad highways of the country. An illustration in point: A man who ships a car of wheat through by rail to the the eastern seaboard Ims not, under the present condition of affairs, any reasonable surety of its getting 1 here. i It may go through Illinois and Indiana and be stopped in Ohio, or thro* ! Minnesota and be stopped in Illinois, and all this purely owing to local caus“s. Now, on the other hand, if a man ships a barge of wheat down the Mississippi river he has protection of the i police power of the federal f overn- • meat, ami it is so effective that his I wheat will go for a certainty. Rail I road lines have outgrown mere eori porate limits and having becomepubi lie necessities their operation shouli jj>e intelligently guarded by sound i general public laws. Now if it was a crime against United States law to stop a train in Ohio, and also to stop a train in Indiana, or in Illinois, and so on from ocean to ocean, through transit would be assured, because the class of people that railroad cornpanies create are general and not local iin their iustinete. They respect Uni- | ted States law a great deal more than ; state law in this particular matter of ] railroads.”