A Big Subject

Some importance is being attached to the hasty return from Burope of Cornelius Varlderbilt, says the New York Financial News. It is known that conferences have been held in Europe on the railroad sltuation in this country, and the presence there of Mr. Vanderbilt and Mr. Morgan has given additional importance to these. The return oL Mr. Vanderbilt at this juncture looks as if some conclusions have been rcaehed, and that these conclusions are to be put into active operation. This paper has had several articles showing the tendency of the Vanderbilt interests. This tendency is nothing more or less than a vast railroad consolidation, embracing first the railroads east of the Mississippi river, and eventually the railroads of the country. The grip which these financiers already have upon the roads leading out of New York will make their plans easy of accomplishment. They are strengthenin'g their position every day by the purchasing of railroad property in the south, and they virtually now control the southern railway system east of the Mississippi. Erle is theirs, and the Baltimore & Ohio is fast getting under their control. Pennsylvania, through the Drexel holdings, can be transferred to them on short notice, so that, with the aid of European capital, which is especially favorable to them, they are in a position today to control the railroads of this country. It also looks as if they were about to assume this position. The times and the circumstanees seem ripe for the move. Such a move, moreover, would not be an unmitigated evil. At the same time, the peculiar state of affairs should be known and discussed, and should not be allowed to take place except with the entire approval of our citizens. The control of the railroads of this country would probably also mean the control of the legislation oí the country, and it might also mean the control of the nation's industries. In this view a pretty big subject is loomlng up before us, much more important than tariff, income or anything else. One thing, however, is clear. The nation should know what it is doing, and should not allow itself to drift into a position from which only a civil war would be capable oí extricating it.