A MONEY KING.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1690, 3 January 1874, Page 3

A MONEY KING.

Hai-per's Weekly cays :— Mr Vander-bilt-controls 2150 miles of railway, constituting the main line between the West and the seaboard, and the chief outlet of Buch cities as Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Troy, Albany Hudson, Poughkeepsie, and other riverside towns. The property which ho thus administers is represented on the Stock Exchange by securities equal to 215,000,000d01, and its gross income last year was not leas than 45,000,000d01— mote than the whole income of the^Qnited States Government a few years ago. It is impossible to contemplate this vast aggregation of money power and commercfal control in the hands of one man without feeling concern for the result. 1 Neither military, nor political, nor commercial supremacy can be pushed beyond certain limits without, danger. , It would seem as though the limit in this case has been reached. Yet, not content with the mastery of 2150 miles of railway^ involving in a large degree the internal trade of the States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and. New York, it is well understood that in October next, at the annual election of the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Commodore will enter into possession of that great property likewise, with its 60,000 or 70,000 miles of wires, its 40,000, 000d0l of capital, and its eight or nine millions of revenue. When this occurs', not only will the commerce of the fotir chief States of the North be subjected 1 to Mr Vanderbilt— under such feeble. restrictions as out Legislature may 'impose— but the whole telegraphic correspondence of the country will obey his law. He may prescribe not only what shall jbe the price of a barrel of flour in New 'York, but also when, ho.w, and at what cost citizens may communicate, with each other by telegraph. Of course, he ■will be .subjected to legislative control. "What that will amount to we all know. In the past, no legislature in thfe State tffes ever dared to beard him. He will be a Dold man, indeed who will attempt to do so now, when his resources are so unbounded and his power so far-reaching. It was said %it the late James Fisk, jun., who contrtlled a paltry 450 miles of rail in a hay. se ttled country, could, on an emergency, bring 25,000 voters into the field. At how i*any. votes, then, can we reckon the maste., o f 2150 miles of railway, through a to^yy settled country, and 75,000 miles ot telegraph ? It is, moreover, one thing 'Vi pass laws, and,. quite another thing _to ex-. cu t e them against a man fertile in resources, energetic in actibn, obstinate in combat, and inexhaustible in purse.