Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/298

 8. To permit foreign corporations to exploit our coal, iron, oil and other products and the state get no benefit, is a mistake. A tax should be imposed upon these products, the proceeds to be applied to the betterment of the roads.

9. In order to increase a sentiment of patriotism, the Camp Grounds of Valley Forge and Bushy Run should be preserved by the state.

10. The University of Pennsylvania should be cared for by the state as provided for in the Constitution of 1776.

11. Newspapers ought to be held responsible for the want of reasonable care in what they publish, and to be required to publish the names of their owners with each issue.

12. The state should aid Pittsburgh to unite, in one municipality, the populations at the head waters of the Ohio.

13. The state should aid Philadelphia in opening a way to the sea.

As will be seen hereafter, each one of these propositions was given effect before my term was finished, except that of taxing coal, oil and iron as it is produced, and since I left the office my suggestion has been followed and such a tax imposed upon coal. But to accomplish such a programme required effort; at every step there was obstruction, and my four years were filled with storms from start to finish. Human nature is so constituted that the individual who does anything beyond the ordinary, in any line of endeavor, is sure to encounter the opposition of the interests adversely affected, of the doctrinaires who want things done in some other way, and of the conservatives who want nothing done at all; and it generally happens that those who may be benefited go off to enjoy what they have secured and leave the battle to be waged without their assistance.

I offered the position of private secretary to Colonel J. Granville Leach, a friend of long standing, who had been in the legislature and whom I had been helping all of the time I was on the Bench, but he declined, no doubt waiting 282