Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-31

A law like the Reagan bill no doubt ap-
peals to the public intolerance of slow
progress. The reason of this is that great
many people are incapable of distinguish
ing between power and capacity. Because
the Government is strong, they think 1t
must necessarily be wise. Omnipotence
and omniscience seem to them inseparable,
and they do not stop to reflect that Gov
ernments are not even omnipotent. When
therefore great question comes up, these
good folks are all for having it settled out
of hand, and because it proves difficult OF
treatment, they clamor to have it dealt
with summarily. They say that &C if Con
"gress would only exert itself there would
''be no trouble What is needed is a
stringent, peremptory law that will bring
&c tie railroads to their senses and do away
with all the existing abuses at one
"stroke." And they approve the Reagan
bill because it is just in this line, and
because it deals sweepingly with the corpo-
rations, and settles everything right and
left as though there really were no diff.
culties at all. But it is necessary to point
out that this kind of legislation is not new
in the United States; that it has been
tested quite thoroughly, and that it has
had in every instance precisely the barren
results which were predicted. The Reagan
bill is an attempt to apply to the regula-
ton of interstate railway traffic the prin-
ciples which were represented in the So
called Granger laws-that is to say, it is
an attempt to settle complex and difficult
problem without the least reference to the
natural laws which govern it. We have
no doubt that there are still enough
simpletons in the country, unconvinced
by the utter failure of the Granger laws,
to applaud the enactment of the Reagan
bill, and that Congressman who are
merely time-servers might make some
ephemeral capital among the ignorant by
supporting such measure. But Congress
men who are time servers are not governed
by reason, and it is to rational men alone
that we think it worth while to adj
dress arguments. The Reagan bill is
measure which will not settle anything
because it is drawn without the necessary
knowledge Of the subject. The Ignorance
of its Trainer is shown in his attempt to
destroy competition between land and wa
ter carriage, and rival land routes, in the
imagined interest of inter-terminal traffic.
No man who had mastered the elementary
principles of transportation could possibly |
have committed this blunder Such law
would only postpone settlement of the
railroad problem. and it would at the
same time, render it more difficult, by !
overthrowing many well-established pin
ciples, and introducing anarchy to the
railroad situation generally. 1t must also
trary and unintelligent legislation is very
apt to grow by what it feeds ON that the
effect of bad and therefore abortive legis- |
lation is often an increased disposition to
even more drastic measures and that in
this way the progress OF injustice, wrong
and confusion is apt to be accelerated at
every step. The Reagan bill is an in
stance of unstatesmanlike legislation. 1t
is retrogressive, not progressive. 1t is in
the line of demagogism, not of practical
wisdom 1t does not meet the require
ments of the case, but is framed to solve
an imaginary problem. To adopt such
law could not therefore do away with the
need for Commission, but would merely
postpone the beginning of practical treat
ment.
The Commission plan recommended by
Mr.. Adams has received its best exempt