Weekly Trinity journal., 1874-03-21
THE GREAT QUESTION.

with recon- mend9tiOn that it do not
pass. They have also presented sub
stitute. said to have been drawn by Sena-
tor Irwin, the passage of which is RECON-
mended by majority of the committee,
and have returned the bill of Senator
Bartlett, creating Board of Transports
auon commissioners, the passage of
which will be recon. mended in a minori-
ty report. Upon the Freeman bill, which
passed the Assembly by a vote of 72 to
9, there is no diversity of opinion the
| Committee are unanimous in their rec
onmendation that it should not become
a law
The Senate Committee have reached
this conclusion only after long and pa
tient investigation. 1t has invited the
presence Of witnesses upon both sides Of
the question, and has endeavored to give
! the subject that attention its Importance
demands. in this respect it has differed
in its action from the Assembly Commit
tee, which called in no witnesses, sought
no testimony, and whose mem bers, to
quote the language Of one of their num-
Der, "preferred to use their own judg-
ment." The judgment OF a committee,
when it is founded on a fair and impartial
investigation of the subject under consid-
Grafton, is generally accepted by the body
appointing the committee, and its decs-
ion is seldom reversed. This was the
case in the lover branch of the Legis-
lature, but the proceedings since had
show that both the Assembly and its
committee acted more from blind prcju-
dice and dread OF popular opinion, than
from desire to do exact justice to all
Mem bers Of the Assembly who voted for
the Freeman bill in all its stages, have
given evidence before the Senate Com
mittee to endeavor to have their own
decree reversed, and doubtless there arc
others who, through dread of the rid
icue attendant upon such an anomalous
position, are doing secretly what others
have the moral courage and manlness
to do openly.
The passage of the Freeman bill by the
House was piece of hasty. injudicious
legislation which, even if rejected by the
Senate, as it will undoubtedly be, cannot
fail to have an injurious effect upon rail-
road enterprises in this State for some
years to come. Its passage by the AS
sembly upon the bare mendation
of the Assembly committee which had,
by its own confession, given the subject
no attention whatever, was a proceeding
calculated to affect every interest in this
country which is compelled to rely upon
the assistance Of capital for its prosecu-
ton. That seven -eighths of delibera-
tive body of men selected for their pre-
sumed possession Of a higher standard of
intellect than the average, should so far
yield to popular clamor as to sanction the
passage Of law the most strenuous sup
porters Of which shrank from an exam
ination of the grounds on which it was
claimed the law is desirable, sounds badly
for the prospects of return to the reign
Of common sense. If, because the peo-
pie are presumed to desire it, their rep
sentatives do not hesitate to commit one
act Of injustice, what security is there
for the future that other representatives,
will not stain the statutes of the State by
the passage Of other unjust laws There
is none whatever.
We doubt very much whether the
Dolly Vardens who forced the bill thro'
the Assembly ever seriously contemplate
ed that the measure would become law
That its provisions would be examined
with more deliberation in the Senate than
was accorded by themselves, they must
have known-and knowing this, knew
also that it would be rejected. Their
plan of passing a bill in the assumed in
terest of the people without due nve, tig-
alton, and throwing the onus of its defeat
upon the Senate, has worked admirably,
and its results will furnish good subject
for the Sacramento Union and its pee
wees to howl about for the next two
ycdle. IL tHe CeHdlc udu DiOCkeu I0lS
little game of the Dollys by passing the
Freeman bill in precisely the form in
which it came to them, the folly and fall
sity Of the anti-railroad cry would soon
have been demonstrated-an extra ses-
sion of the Legislature would have been
necessary to repeal it !; but the State and
the people would have been the gamers
in the long run.
We are not familiar enough with the
railway question to advance an opinion
as to whether either Of the other bills now
up for the Senate's consideration is calcu-
lated to do away with the alleged troub-
les, or not. The substitute bill of Sena-
tor Irwin, while drawn on n scale which
graduates charges according to distance,
seems Objectionable to us for various rea-
sons. We do not think that arbitrary
rates Of fare and freight can be made to
apply equally to all lines of tran@porta-
ton, without taking into consideration
the amount and character of the bust
ness transacted by each. The salient fea-
ture of the Bartlett bill is that which pro-
vides for the appointment Of Transposta-
tion Commissioners and it is our belief
that in some such way as this only, can
the solution Of this problem of railway
management be reached. Nine-tenths
of the men sent to the Legislature know
no more of railway matters than of navi-
cation, and from such it would be an idle
hope to expect inteligen: legislation,
however sincere they may be in their de-
sire to do what is right. OF course both
of these measures will encounter the op-