Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1878-04-03
a Gross view Of Lss,.l~.ure..

A Gross view of legislatures.
It is lamentable but true that
the Legislatures of many of the
States have come to be looked upon
OF late years as bodies of official
sistrikers.n That such an opinion
Is ingrained in many intelligent
communities is Of itself proof con-
elusive that Legislative morality
has fallen to very low ebb. In.
tegrity and patriotic action rarely
fail OF recognition. There have
been . number of notable VIOLA
tions of Legislative trusts ola char
acter 90 monstrous as to shake the
trust of constituencies in their rep
resentatives. We put to one side
the scandalous Credit Mobilier rev.
Citations which smirched both
Houses Of the National Legisla-
ture. Connning our attention to
State.law-makers, in the action of
the Legislatures Of New York and
Pennsylvania we find three pro-
ceedings Of nature so abhorrent to
political morality. indeed to indi-
vidual honesty, that they stand out
from the common run of legisla-
tive villainies like tall cliffs from
z level moor.
First in the order Of time were
two acts of the Pennsylvania Leg
islature. By the first that body
gave a deed in fee simple to the
Pennsylvania Railway of the whole
public works of that State. for a
( nominal purchase price of $1,000
600. The pretended sale was really
. gratuity, because the company
was given thirty years in which to
< pay the 100000. They were to
pay it in sums of 100000 q year,
the principal carrying no
interest. When it is remembered
that these works cost the State
upwards of forty millions of dollars
in original construction and re-
pairs, tho lnonstrous character of
the act may be realized. When 1t
Is further borne in mind that the
State Caual for hundreds of miles
ran parallel with the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and was the only check
upon its spirit of extortion, the ex-
tent to which the people of that
State were fleeced may be family
imagined. They have probably
been made to pay hundreds of mil
lions CT dollars in increased freights
through that disgraceful surrender
of property built entirely by the
public money.
As if this were not infamy
enough, the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania followed up this fraudulent
sale Of the public works by repeal
Ing the tonnage tax by which the
railways were made to contrit ute
to the income of the State.
These two peculiar acts of the
Pennsylvania Legislature were
followed, after lapse of ten
years, by the legislation by
which the State of New
York enabled Jim Fiske and Jay
Gould to steal the Erie Railway
from its stockholders. That was
probably the most gigantic rob-
berry ever perpetrated on earth in
transactions of commercial or
business character. a statute was
"snaked" through both houses of the
Legislature, which received the sig
nature of the Governor, authorizing
Fisk and Gould to issue improve
ment bonds to an indefinite amount
whenever n locomotive needed a
few repairs. Under this novel
statute Gould and Fiske set up q
printing machine in their back
office; and, in few months, the
stockholders, English aud Ameri-
can, of the Erie Railway, found
they owned nothing in the road,
and that those two WORTHLESS owned
the railway, with its franchises
and appurtenances. No earthly
means of redress could be devised.
1t is small wonder that respect
for legislative bodies decreased
apace when such things were done.
We think that we discern decid-
Z ed Improvement, however, in our
State legislatures. They are be-
coming more amenable to a vigil
liant public opinion. One would
have supposed, from the way the
late California Legislature was
abused by Republican newspapers
that every one of the questionable
measures introduced would have
passed. AS matter of fact, none
of them have. Not all the millions
which were supposed to lie behind
the Spring Valley water job ena-
bled its projectors to get it through
the Legislature. Grove L. John
sons Infamous press law was
killed. We welcome such evil
dences that the corrupt methods of
Eastern Legislatures are not to be
introduced into California.
THE people of the United States
have not only had to sit idly by