Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-06
TIE RAILROADS BETWEEN THE STATE
AND TIE NATION.

The San Francisco Chronicle denounces
the Central and Southern Pacific Railways
as "litigious corporations" because they
object to the arbitrary fixing of their tariffs
by the Railroad Commission which was
established under the new Constitution.
1t is perhaps remarkable that these cor.
porations should fail to see the justice and
equity OF an arrangement whereby three
irresponsible outsiders are empowered to ad-
just the entire business of the roads at
their own caprice, but the Nervousness OF
this objection is difficult to realize from Il
merely common-sense standpoint. The
highwayman who bids the traveller
stand and deliver" may possibly think it
unreasonable that his victim should at
tempt resistance to his peculiar methods of
levying taxation, but none the less does
the robbed man feel that he is being
wgonged. The Railroad Commission was
the very flower and quintessence of that
outbreak of Communism which resulted in
the new Constitution. 1t was deliberately
framed in contrayention of every principle
OF right and justice known to civilized
societies. When, during the de-
bates which preceded its adoption,
1t was proposed that the Commissioners
should be at least restricted TO eimposition
of reasonable" rates upon the railroads,
|
| the legislative Cartouches and Macaires
, who We're engineering the outrage refused to
listen to any such modification Of the pro-
| posed con6scation. 1t was intended by
them to q cinch" the railroads, and they
were firmly resolved that no loophole of
escape should be left open. So the Com
missioners were invested with powers such
as had never before in a country calling it
self free been extended to any single body.
and in order to make their authority
paramount every tradition and maxim of
representative Government and Of republi-
can doctrine was ruthlessly trampled under
foot. Executive, legislative and Judicial
powers were all vested in this spawn of
! Communism, and it was authorized to deal
with private property as freely and as ire
sponsibly as ever robber Barons dealt with
the spoils of plundered Abbeys in the
Middle Ages. There was no evasion and
no redress possible to the intended victims
The Commissioners could cut down the
rates of fare and freight until the re-
ceipts failed to pay the operating ex-
penses. and still the railroads could not
help themselves. They were in fact re-
garded as though they had no rights, and
as though in their case it was perfectly
| allowable to take private property for pub
lie uses without compensation. This was
the purpose of the Railroad Commission,
but it happened that the Federal Govern.
ment possessed some interests in the Cen
trail Pacific Railway, as well as the State,
and about this time Congress thought fit to
protect these interests by passing the
measure known as the Thurman Bill.
This law provided that the Pacific Rail-
roads should pay over certain proportion
OF their earnings az stated intervals, for
the formation of sinking fund, where
with TO discharge the debt which the CON-
panies owed, or would presently owe, to
the National Government. The Supreme
Court of the United States subsequently
affirmed the constitutionality of the Thur
man Bill, and thus the principle was estab-
lished that the Federal Government had
right to appropriate the earnings of the
Pacific Railroads to secure an unmatured
debt.