[Revised from the New York Herald of July 4, 1870.]
THE FIFTH PART OF MRS. WOODHULL’S DISQUISITION ON GOVERNMENT—INDIVIDUAL
ENTERPRISE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT AS AFFECTED BY GOVERNMENT.
Individual enterprise, especially among Americans, has produced the most
wonderful results. Very much of the advancement of the country is
directly attributable to it. Great minds have been obliged to operate
singly and alone to develop their inspirations, ideas and conclusions.
Thousands possessed of comprehensive principles in a semi state of
application have sunk with them into obscurity for lack of appreciation
and support. In the infancy of the republic, before it was possible for
any to catch the idea of its grand destiny, it was not to be expected
that any great or general system of interdependence between the
government and the people should be adopted. There was a general fear of
everything that did not seem to promote that individual freedom which
seeks no harmony with the greatest freedom of the whole, while no regard
was paid to any philosophic relations of the individual to the whole
number of individuals represented by the government. This was
intellectual individuality, lacking the harmony of wisdom.
It came after a while that the great enterprises demanded by the rapidly
increasing growth of the country could not be conducted by single
individuals, and numbers of them combined to carry them out. Rapid means
of transit began to be developed, which in many instances redounded to
the pecuniary benefit of the company prosecuting them, but always to the
general interest of the whole, both as a people and as a government. On
the contrary, many enterprises which have proved equally beneficial to
the country have ruined those who projected them. Thus the general
welfare has been promoted by the sacrifice of individual interests.
Especially has this been true of the great system of railroads that
binds the nation together with bonds of iron, too powerful, it seems,
for any sectional interest ever to sever.
Internal improvements are eminently a legitimate branch of the general
government. They are not for the benefit of individuals or sections, but
for the benefit of the whole. So true is this that a seemingly purely
local government cannot confine its benefits and uses to the section it
is located in. Its influence permeates the very extremes of the country.
A railroad connecting two cities in the same State may be built. At
first glance this would be declared simply and only of benefit to the
localities it passes through. But upon close scrutiny a variety of ways
develop themselves that must be advantageous to thousands, residing in
all parts of the country, and to the government itself. It therefore
conduces to the public welfare and convenience in a much more general
sense than to sectional or local good. It is therefore entitled to the
protection of the government, whose duty it is to look after and promote
the interests of the public. Is it entitled to anything more, or does
the full duty of the government begin and cease with simple protection?
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.