The Placer herald., 1872-06-22
AUBURN PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, JUNE %, 1872
SARGENT'S GOAT ISLAND JOB.

| SAKGENI'S GOAT ISLAND JOB.
The more thoroughly the motives of the
Central Pacific Railroad Company in seeking
possession of Goat Island in San Francisco
harbor are investigated, the more indefensi-
BILE appears the stupendous job which its
agents in Congress are endeavoring to carry
through. The natural indignation of the
Californans against Sargent, the principal
engineer of this scheme, for his action in the
matter, is heightened by the misrepresenta-
tons to which he resorted in order to mislead
the House of Representatives in regard N
the true bearings of the measure he was ad-
vocating, thus adding perverson of the truth
to his treachery to the interests of the State
I he pretends to represent.
In the discussion which took place in the
House while the Goat Island bill was pending
in that branch of Congress, Mr.. Sargent oc-
cupied an anomalous position. lie assumed
to be representative of the people of Cali
fomia, and fair witness as to the condition
of affairs in that State; whereas, in reality,
he was the tool of huge monopoly which
was endeavoring to mfict deadly injury on
the interests of his constituents at the ex-
pense of the country at large; and, in fur
therance of the designs of this monopoly, he
availed himself of his position as the nominal
representative of the people, not only to
misrepresent the wishes of that people, but
to give currency to unjust charges, seriously
affecting their reputation and calculated to
injure their commercial interests and material
prosperity.
The demands of the Central Pacific Rail
road in relation to the grant of Goat Island
have been pushed with degree of insolence
without parallel in the history of Congress
sional jobbery. This is probably the result
of confiding the management of their case to
"A man who is as coarse and unfortunate in
his manner as he is unscrupulous in the use
of means; and whose obtuseness is such
that he frequently Injuries the cause he in
tends to serve by his conspicuous disregard
of the nicer propreties which usually govern
gentlemen holding positions of dignity-man-
festations of lax morality and bad taste
which very likely result from defective
moral perceptions and want of cultivation
rather than from bad intention. 1t is proba-
bly, owing to this persons advice that the
serious blunder has been made by the rail
road party of stigmatizng the people of San
Francisco as set of grasping monopolists
who wish to levy tribute on the entire com
merce of the Pacific ocean for all time, and
of making false representations, which were
sure to be exposed, in relation to taxes or
commerce imposed by the public officials OF
San Francisco. The circulation of such SIAN
ders, under the encouragement of pretended
representative of California interests, is sc
gross an improperly that it at once creates
sympathy in unprejudiced minds and excites
suspicious which might otherwise never have
been awakened.
While it was urged in Congress that Sar
Francisco was levying exorbitant taxes or
the commerce of the country, the agents OF
the Central Pacific Railroad, in and out OF
Congress, knew perfectly well that that city
had been petitioning the Legislature year
after year to order reductions of wharfage
dockage and tolls, and they further knew
that the city had succeeded in securing re-
ductions of fifty per cent. in harbor charges.
And yet they used the old prices, fixed by
the State, and not the city, in argument
against San Francisco, and exaggerated these
charges besides. The city is willing to take
charge of its wharves and docks, and make
the port as cheap as any in the world; but
if the contrary were true, and if San Fran
cisco was as exacting as has been charged
the exquisite folly of supposng that such a
state of affairs would be improved by placing
the commerce of the Pacific at the mercy Of
a single railroad corporation, is too obvious to
impose for an instant upon any person of Or
dinary intelligence.
The truth of the whole matter appears to
be that the Central Pacific Railroad Company,
having built up vast monopoly of routes
and privileges, and gained the control of
every railroad and steamboat line centering
at the bay of San Francisco, the only port
on the Pacific coast of the United States for
thirteen hundred miles, now wishes to mo-
nopolize the warehouse BUSINESS also, and
TO build up rival city to San Francisco on
ground which it has begged from the United
States 1t asks our Government to give it
an island required for military purposes, in
order that it may make enormous profits at
the expense of San Fran nclsco, and control,
beyond the power of competition, the com
merce of the Pacific A more impudent
demand was never made, and if its real
purpose had been fully understood, the
Goat Island bill could never have passed
the House. A desperate effort will be made
to rush it through the Senate, but now that
the character of the measure and of its advo-
Gates has been fully exposed, that body will
scarcely dare to defy public opinion so far as
to permit the consumaton of the job.-NeaC
York Sun, June. 4th.
TINS is the way they call out the figure Of