goes down so deep, or lies so near the heart of the people. Even the grand cause of woman's enfranchisement is fairly included in it, in so far as the ballot is powerless to save in the hands of landless citizens; while that cause must find its chief support in the laboring masses whose battle-cry is "Homes for all," and who will welcome the heart and brain of woman as their natural and most powerful allies.

.

THE RAILWAY POWER.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 21, 1871.1

[The views here presented of the Railway as a political power, will be found suggestive, while the cry of danger is sounded none too soon. It is to be hoped the people will heed it in season.]

MR. SPEAKER, -The action of this House on the South Pacific Railway Bill is quite remarkable, and fitly exemplifies the spirit and policy of what may properly be called the railway power of the United States. For some time past the opinion seems to have been gaining ground, both in Congress and out, that our land grant policy has been very decidedly checked, if not finally overthrown. The indications of this have been thought palpable enough. The huge pile of Senate bills on the Speaker's table has been allowed to slumber, and the House has manifested a sort of instinctive dread of the motion to take them up, on account of the immense quantities of land which they propose to hand over to monopolies. This body, at the last session, unanimously passed a resolution condemning all further grants of land in aid of railroads, and the Republican party, recognizing the popular hostility to these grants, paraded this resolution in a campaign document last year as evidence of its soundness on the question of friendliness to our pioneer settlers. This House also, again and again, has declared that if further grants are to be made, the lands granted should be sold. only to actual settlers, in quantities not greater than one quarter section to a single purchaser, and for such reasonable price as to bring them within the reach of those who actually need them for homes, thus accepting the obvious principle that the building of the road and the settlement and tillage of the land along its border are mutual helps to each other.

The President, in his last annual message, favors this policy, and gives us his opinion against the expediency or necessity of further grants of lands for railroad purposes, and in favor of reserving the whole of our remaining public domain for actual settlers under the preemption and homestead laws. To these tokens of a healthy

1 On the Bill to incorporate the Texas Pacific Railroad.

reaction in favor of the rights of the people and against the further squandering of their great domain, may be added numerous resolves and instructions of State Legislatures, and of the people of all parties in their conventions within the past year.

But these signs of the times, Mr. Speaker, have not been unmistakable. The railway power has had no dream of surrender, and has been more tireless and sleepless than ever before in the prosecution of its purposes. This was fully made manifest a week or two ago, on the motion of the gentleman from New York [Mr. WHEELER], to refer this South Pacific Bill to the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, with leave to report at any time. This motion was overwhelmingly carried; thus showing how completely the railway interest in the House had been organized, and how perfectly it held this body in its power. No such favor had been accorded to any proposition during this session affecting the public lands. Under the leave thus given the bill is reported back in an amended form, but without any restrictions whatever guarding the rights of settlers. Some eighteen million acres of the public domain are handed over by it to one great corporation, in utter disregard of the policy so earnestly urged by the President, in contempt of the people's wishes as expressed in such manifold forms, and, as I have shown, in mockery of the record of this House made at the last session without division, and made repeatedly for years past, in favor of guarding these grants in the interest of the landless poor. What is the result? The Chairman of the Pacific Railroad Committee, in reporting his amended bill, moves the previous question, thus cutting off all debate, and all amendments save as permitted by himself. Knowing that a South Pacific road ought to be built, under a properly guarded bill, knowing how popular is the idea of its necessity, and holding the power to compel members to vote against the bill, or else to vote for it with all its imperfections, he demands a vote at once. What does he care for the rights of settlers? What did he care a year ago, when the Northern Pacific Bill was carried in the same way, surrendering to one corporation fifty-eight million acres of the people's patrimony? What did he care if this South Pacific Bill allowed the corporation, along a portion of its line, to go any distance from the road on one side of it in grasping the public domain, because there was a deficiency on the other?

The chairman of the committee represented the spirit and tactics of the peculiar institution known as the railway, and was the chosen man to do its work; and I award him the credit of doing it

faithfully and courageously. I asked him to allow me to offer an amendment, wishing to make the bill conform to the policy I have indicated. He refused me the privilege. I asked him to allow the amendment to be read, so that the House might know what I proposed. This also he declined. I then asked him to allow me only three minutes of his hour to debate the proposition, but this also was denied, while awarding the floor to sundry others whom he probably regarded as less obnoxious to his purposes. But I still did not despair. The relations existing between the distinguished chairman and myself are most friendly. I could not believe his obligations to this company would compel him to cast me off entirely. He knew that I had been giving some attention to our land policy for twenty odd years past. He knew that for ten years I have been an active member of a committee of this House considerably older than that on the Pacific Railroad, and having concurrent jurisdiction with it on the land question. I hoped, therefore, he would not refuse all my petitions, and I begged of him now only the privilege of asking him a single question. But this, too, was denied. The distinguished chairman of the committee could not spare the time; and yet he promptly awarded the floor to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD] to ask three questions, each preceded by a preface, and so plainly foreshadowing the ready answers which were given as to excite the laughter of the House, while not one of them touched the vital defects of the bill. The previous question was seconded, and the perfectly disciplined forces in support of the bill passed it, by-yeas 135, nays

70.

Mr. Speaker, in thus referring to these suggestive and pregnant facts, I beg not to be misunderstood. As I have already said, this South Pacific road should be built. From the first I have looked upon the enterprise with favor, and have earnestly hoped that a bill providing for it might be so well considered and so carefully framed as to command the support of those who regard the settlement and improvement of the public lands as not less important than commercial facilities. Nor do I cherish any hostility to railroads generally. Both by speech and by vote have I borne my testimony to the contrary, during my service in this body. It has been well said that in this country railways create the towns which they connect, and carry civilization and all the appliances of civilized life with them. Undoubtedly they help develop the country; but the development theory may be carried too far, and too fast. It is one thing to establish great lines of intercommunication, foster great commercial enterprises, amass great wealth

in the hands of the few, and show the world the spectacle of a magnificent government founded on the aristocracy of wealth. It is quite another thing, while looking to the healthy development of our commerce and the activity of capital, to so shape the administration of affairs as to preserve in their full vigor the principles of democratic government and the republican virtue of the people.

A thoughtful article in the last number of the "Westminster Review," on the future of the railway in the United States, asserts that we "are rapidly entering a new feudal age, in which industry pays its tribute to commerce, as in former times it did to the sword. The despotism of this feudalism is as certain as was the other, though the means for enforcing it are more subtle and complex, partaking in this respect of the change in the application of force which has marked the advance of industry itself. Industry now does not depend upon mere muscular energy, but upon steam, nor does despotism depend upon the sword for maintaining its rule, but upon legislation, upon financial methods, though in both cases the chief hold upon the people is founded upon the possession of the roads." The writer proceeds to illustrate his meaning by referring to the power of the old feudal barons over the roads passing through their territory, in virtue of which they levied such tribute as they saw fit upon those who passed over them; and he mentions three of the States of our Union which are as completely under the control of their railways, in their political, financial, and commercial interests, as ever the people in feudal times were controlled by the baron in his castle.

Referring to one of the modern methods adopted by railway corporations for increasing the power of capital over industry, commonly known as "watering their stock," he compares it to the kindred policy of the feudal barons in debasing the coinage which they forced upon their unwilling subjects. He declares, what no one will dispute, that the railways of the United States, as against the public, invariably act in harmony; and he adds, that "when it is remembered that this combination represents an aggregate of capital estimated at $2,000,000,000; that it employs hundreds of thousands of persons who are dependent upon it for support; that it is spread like a net-work over the entire country; that the industry of millions is dependent upon it; that its managers are active, devoted, and skillful men, who, being peculiarly subject to the commercial spirit which values only success obtained by any means, are peculiarly tempted to be unscrupulous concerning the methods they may employ to gain their ends, it becomes a serious