Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-02-10
HoE. JAMES WILSON on THE REAGAN
BILL.

In our supplement yesterday we printed
a portion of the very able argument OF
Hon. James Wilson on the Reagan bill,
before the House Committee on Commerce.
The main point of this argument is the
clear showing made of the fundamental
principle that the rate OF transportation
should be lower, the longer the haul. The
Reagan bill proposes to abolish this prirci-
pie, and to compel railroads to charge the
same proportional rates for all distances,
thus destroying competition, and narrow
ing the limits within which produce can be
proftably sent to market. Under the sys-
TEN OF transportation which las grown out
of experience and business exigency, it has
been found possible to extend these limits
enormously, and one result OF this extern
sion has been to enlarge the cultivable area
OF the country beyond what would have
been possible in hundred years by the
old methods of transportation. The prin-
ciple of the low rate for the long haul
is in fact the principle which
has built up the great West. 1t has ena-
bled lands to be settled and titled which
nothing else could have redeemed from the
wilderness. 1t has stimulated the growth
of towns and hamlets which but for it
could not have existed. 1t has added
millions to the population of the country,
and has been the means of creating wide
spread prosperity. And now comes Mr..
Reagan and proposes that this great prin-
ciple shall be abolished, and that hence
forth the railroads shall be prohibited
from charging less for the long haul
! than for the short one. As Mr.. Wilson
showed before the committee, this ex-
pertinent has already been tried in Iowa,
and it was so disastrous failure
that the people fastened to return
to the old method, and have
no desire for any further innova-
ations of that kind The Trainer of
the bill pretends that the measure will not
interfere with the low rate for the long
haul, but Mr.. Wilson here impales him on
the horns of fatal dilemma, for he points
out that if this construction OF the bill is
the right one, it can only result In legaliz-
ing the imposition of the same rate for
short distances as for long ones. Ii, there
fore, the bill is what its opponents claim,
it must shut out distant communities
from the markets altogether. If it is what
its author claims, it will empower the rail-
roads to charge through rates for
way business. Mr.. Wilson illustrates
the case thus: Suppose the greater
"distance over which car load of freight
sis to be carried is LOCO miles, and the
"rate 500. Another car load of the same
''klnd of freight is TO be moved over the
GO line a shorter distance of so miles. Can
"Sl00 be charged for that also? Un-
doubtedly this can be done under the
construction of the section given by its
''author. Whatever is charged for the
greater distance may likewise be put
"upon the shorter haul. If $50 be
charged for l GOO miles, the same amount
"may be charged for % miles. And this
sis to have the sanction of law One or
the other of these constructions must be |
"given to the section Either it prohibits
ga low rate for a long haul, or it author
"izes an exorbitant rate for short haul"
There is no escape from this dilemma
Whichever Interpretation is proposed by
the advocates of this bill, they are doomed
to demand the preparation of wrong.
The enactment of such law, indeed,
would not do the harm of which it is sus-
ceptible. simply because the country would
refuse to tolerate it, A trial of less than
six months would prove that its mainten-
ance must result in the depopulation of the
remoter parts of the West in the ruin of
now fourishing cities, in the abandonment
OF fertile soil, in the paralysis of the
growth of the Union. 1t is a blind and
foolish attempt to fetter transportation by
applying to it arbitrary rules wholly
incompatible with progress. The OBJ.
iect seems to have been to remove all
inequalities, and to the extent that this
is attempted it is evidence of astonishing
ignorance on the part Of the author. For
in this world, as all experience shows, the
very best that can ever be obtained is
merely relative perfection. The formula
of the greatest happiness to the greatest
number describes all that science and leg
islation and philosophy can nationally aim
at and this goal implies limitations of
the most pronounced character. There
will always be inequalities in any sys-
TEN. There viii always be those
who are at a disadvantage. But
the test of system is not the question
whether it fails TO meet every conceivable
requirement, but whether it meets
majority of the requirements. Whoever
undertakes 10 legislate for the special
benefit of the minority who are unavoid-
ably injured, must legislate against the
majority who are admittedly benefited,
and this is what Mr.. Reagan has done.
In trying to make transportation equally
beneficial to all he has destroyed its use
fulness for the majority, and this is to in
iure all ultimately, since there can be no
such working principle as that of the
greatest happiness to the smallest num-
ber He has in fact taken up the problem
at the wrong end, and all his reasoning is
backward instead of forward.
a resolution has been introduced into
the State Legislature asking Congress to
pass the Reagan bill. The State Legisla-
ture has, we trust, better apprehension
of its duty to the people of California than
to adopt any such resolution The Reagan
bill is a menace to the Pacific States quite
as much as to the Great West, and nothing
but evil could come of it for this section.
We need all the impulse that can be given
to settlement and cultivation of the soil
I