Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-04-18
THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND
THE RAILWAY.

Largo and In ell gent Audience at Turnversin
Hall-Brilliant Speech fom Mr.. A. A. O,hsn
Why Stanford & Co. Des re the Passage Of
ths NV 0onst tutlon--A Logical Present.
mont of tho Question.
Turnvereiu Hall was crowded last
night by large aud Intelligent au-
dience called thither by the an
nouncement that Mr.. A. A. Cohen,
whose mem nrable fight against the
railway is u matter of universal
notoriety on the Pacific Coast,
would speak on the relations of the
new Constitution to the railways
Mr.. J. de Birth Shorb introduced
the orator of the evening. Adj
vsncing to the front of the stage,
Mr.. Shorb said:
Ladies and Gentlemen: Citizens
of Los Angeles: fhis meeIing, as
you are aware, has been called for
the purpose of enabling us to listen
10 the views of one of the ablest
orators aud lawyers on the Pacific
Coast, regarding that portion Of
the new Coustii ution bearing i'm
mediately on railroads and their
management. [Applause
1t would seem scarcely necessary
for me to tell an intelligent Los
Angeles audience who that orator
and speaker of the evening is; and
yet few among you may not
know the fact that Mr.. A. A. Cohen
[applause is the only man in ali
California who has had tile termer.
lty to meet single-handed he pow
ers of the Central aud Southern
Pacific Railroad Com mpanies--hav
ing the brains and backbone to get
away with the f. sht.
1t ia not long since we met to-
gether in Committee of Fifteen,
called into existence by this coin-
muuity 10 deal with the question of
freights and fares aud the manage
ment of the Southern Pac tic Rail-
road Company, which company
was seriously endangering the III
terests of this community. AS
Chairman of that committee, moss
Of the work devO,ved upon me, and
hence | have some right aud priv
ilege to speak upon this question.
do not come, however, desiring
to take up your time now, but will
leave the SPEAKER Of The evening,
Mr.. "A. A. Cohen, to deal with these
propositions.
| have the honor to present to
you Mr. A. a. Cohen. CApplause.
Mr.. Cohen came forward and
said:
Ladies and Gentlemen: During
my brief snj ,urn in the City Of the
Angels, have seen that your elm
ate partakes of the luxuriousness of
tie tropical fora; but this is not
confined alone to the vegetable pro
ducts. 1t seems to me TO fall into
the views and expressions # your
citizens, as evince by the flitter-
ing manner IN which the Chairman
of your meeting has kindly iulro-
dvced me to your attention.
L regret, for YOUR sakes, that he
has aroused your anticipstions to u
degree in which they are nor likely
to be gra fled 1 am not the orator
he describes me to he. But such as
l have | will give to you.
did not expect when / came to
your city that l would he called
upon TO sneak to you on this occs-
sion or upon this subject, aud if I
had 80 expected | wouli have pre-
pared myself to have done 1t more
justice than | feel l can now do to
the topic Of the evening.
am not vain enough to imagine
that 1 am more capable of express
ing all Intelligent view upon the
merits of the proposed Constitution
than any other gentleman that
see before me. Aud | do nOJ,tu adj
dressing you, expect to impress my
views upon you to the delriment or
removal OF your own, except so far
a. you may think the facts that |
offer to yuur consideration bear
upon he subject matter.
II, by reason of any facts that |
am able to communicate to you,
YOUR views shall he changed, I,shail
he glad that that result is attained
| II, after hearing those facCs, you
are disposed to vote for the adop
| tion of thia new instrument, so d.;
but l simply ak your attention
that l may put before you the facts
that | have hearing upon one of the
most momentous suhJ acts that has
ever engaged the attention of the
people OF this great aud growing
State,
The great evil that he people OF
this State have suffered, have la.
bored under, and TO redress whic i
| they desired a Constitutional Con.
vention, was the tariff for the trans.
portati0n of persons and commodi.
| Ties upon railways That has been
the crying evil III this State. It has
heen the subject of discussion from
shasta to San Diego. AnI there
has been no Community in the
whole of the state that has, SEEM
ingly, been more interested in il
| than your own.
This Convention was called for
| the purpose of redressipg many O
tue wrongs aud correcting many ol
the evils that were supposed TO bt
pre-em lnenlly contrary to the pub
| lie inceresls. But on no one subject
was the attention of the whole peo
pleof this state so completely anG
fully aroused as upon the subject oi
railroad charges and railroad man.
agement. We have been singular
! ly unfortunate, gentlemrn, think,
ia rrachin ng the anticipated results
| / think you Will tinj, when yo,
come 70 examine this iu-trumen'
carefully and scrutiuis ngly, viii
respect to its bearing on ra allroads
that no relief, that no redress, is t.
be obtained 10y it, or that any relic
or any redress to be obtained by o
through IL VIII be found tn hav
been reduced TO very small com
pass. We have been unfurtuuE 4