Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-12-10
what our People should Do.


lied itself rs q "bucker" against
the Central and Southern Pacific
Railways, and for simple reason,
which We can epltomize in q word,
viz, we don't believe in posturiz-
Ing for . losing fight. Given o GER
tain percentage Of chance Of win-
ming aud there is not an anti-mon-
opoly shrieker in the country who
would buckle on his armor more
loyalty for the combat than we. AS
Solomon very neatly remarked,
several thousand years ago, "there
Il . time for everything" The
time to "bounce' a powerful cor
poratlon 1--WE use the singular be-
cause tho Central and Southern
Pacific Railways are practically
one) IL when you have it in the
door and not when it has you there.
There 10 all the difference 'twixt
tweedledum and tweedIedee In this
aspect OF the matter. Even in the
details Of vulgar broils there Is
nothing like s'knowing your man"
and your "tlme." thine is Of the
essence Of the contract" to use a
legal phrase, in such a fight.
For the same reason that we have
RETAINED from "bouncing'' a cor
poration which has the whiphand
OF this community for the present,
We have not enthused for the Tex
as-Pacific Railway. We are as
sensible as any one can be of the
benefit . comp citing transconti-
mental railway would ultimately be
to Los Angeles, even though San
Diego should be made its Pac ific
terminus. But, ever since the ed
itor Of the HERALD ceased to edit
San Diego paper, with the febrile
hopes and cold disappointments in
cidsnt to such a role, he has becom
commonplace and practical. There
were two impedimsnts to our COM
mitting ourselves to the Texas-Pa-
cific Railway scheme. One was
the fact that We knew that the guar
antee would never pass; the second
was that we knew l,it', if it did
pass, Tom Scott, being essentially
. played.ont railway king and con-
nubiator, though personally a very
genial and fascinating man, would
cell out the competitions idea as
fully aud cordially as he sold out
San Diego when he developed the
idea that the distinctive Los Ange-
les aud San Francisco route for his
Texas Pacific was ''commercially y
shorter than the Ii NEST San
Diego route "from Marshall, in the
State OF Texas, to tidewater in the
bay of San Diego" woud have
been.
: Very few readers of lie wspapers
have paused to note the signal pre-
cIsion and provision of the railway
opinions of the HERALD. AT every
stage of our outgivings We have
been absolutely accurate, though
we may have appeared to be reck'
less. We are willing to stake and
jeopardize all the points hereto
tofJrs made by US on the final prop
osition that the Texas-Pacific Rail.
way project, as far as regards thi'
side Of the Continent, was mort
bund when Col. Tom Scott startet
for Switzerland, on trip of physi
cal an msnta! recuperation.
Are we, because Tom Scott, as 8
} powerful motor in railway matters
is dead, to reIinquish all hope fol
fair play in transportation matters
We answer, by no means.
We have lively recollection o
the crusade which our respected
contemporary, the Express, inau
gurated against the Southern Pa
cific and in favor of the Tex as-Pa
cific. 1t always seemed to US as II
the 'set" in the negro minstrels, il
which the ragamulfin visitors wert
"bounced," was initiated in tha
lively and vigorous episode, which
was sustained by She Express in
the eanctum and by the Messrs
Howard and Ganahl on the ros
trum. 1t really looked to US as il
the Southern Pacific should not
be allowed to have a chance 10 gel
itself right on the record, according
to these gentlemen. The managers
OF the movement acted as If they
had a victim whose brow was en-
garlanded with the sacrificial FL.
let's. Nothing was to to be done
but to place the railway people or
the pyre and to set aglow the sacri
fetal fire. We think that almos
any one will agree with us that th,
due amount of caloric for the ere
nation was absent.
It is impossible to disguise tht
fact that our people to-day abso
lutely need to strike an attitude OF
the railway questlon-not an in
4AuItiRg and aggressive one, such n
characterized the visit OF Mr.
Crocker to Los Angeles last year
1t is ofthe utmost moment that W.
should learn just what the railway
people propose 10 do in all tina
lay All the interests OF thii
tg fla We are not in c0ndi
tt4- fe, flIHr. tfssa,f fin n ra wny or N