| OCR Text |
Show SUBSIDIES TO RAILROADS. l'ublio pulioy at the present time with reference to aMM.-uinij the construction con-struction of railways by citiecountiea, State, or tho nation, either by absolute abso-lute donations to railroad companies, or by taking stock in them 011 public corporative account, compan.il with what it wan was ten years ujj;o, strikingly strik-ingly illustrates the tendency of democratic demo-cratic opinion to alternate from one cs-trotno cs-trotno to its opposite Ten years u;o oven tho Sacramento Union was a warm advocate of tho policy of ciicour-ajinn ciicour-ajinn railway enterprises by grant ins to thorn in some form, public assistance; assist-ance; to-day it rabidly opposes a subvention sub-vention of railway corporations under any circumstances, and in this entire change of base tho public has gone with tho Union, or tho Union with the public. Considering the inordinate extent ex-tent to which private corporations havo been subsidized by the people in a corporative capacity, it is not astonishing as-tonishing that tho majority opinion is now opposed to granting public assistance assist-ance to railroad corporations, in any manner. As usual in a change of policy from ouo extreme to another, in this case the correct lino of conduct lies between them. Much as conservatism may bo ridiculed, it is oitcner right than radicalism, and is the only substitute sub-stitute for brute force in making nrcmttizod snuietv nobble. |
