Later, when Judge Crowley, candidate prospective on the popular ticket
for the State Senate, opened the joint debate with a shrewd arraignment
of the methods of the railroad company, not only in its dealings with
the public as a common carrier, but also in the pertinacity with which
it invaded the political field, there was tumultuous applause; but it
was no heartier than that which greeted Blount when he rose to present
the railroad side of the argument.
During the journey from the capital, which had consumed the night and
the greater portion of the forenoon, he had prepared his speech. His
argument--the one unanswerable argument, as it appeared to him--was the
absurdity and injustice of a law which presumed to limit the earning
power of a corporation by fixing the maximum rates it might charge,
without at the same time making a corresponding regulation fixing the
price which the company should pay for its labor and material.
Upon this foundation he was able to build a fair structure of oratory.
The judge, his opponent, was a rather turgid man whose speech had
abounded in flights of denunciation and whose appeal had been made
frankly to prejudice and party rancor. Blount took his cue shrewdly.
Touching lightly upon the public grievances, some of which he
characterized as just and entirely defensible, he rang the changes
calmly and logically upon the square deal, no less for the corporations
than for the individual.
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