Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-11-28
SAN FRANCISCO AND THE RAILROAD
FRANCHISES.

and who are said to have improved upon
suggestion thrown out by the agents of the
Atlantic aud Pacific Company, appear at
this moment to have overshot their mark,
or else the brilliancy of their project has
tempted so many imitators as to spoil the
market. The theory in San Francisco is
that eight of the Supervisors have been
bribed, and at mass meeting last week
many usually staid and sober citizens were
SO moved from their equanimity by the
contemplation of this supposed treason
that even Judges declared their yearning
to hang the alleged malefactors. A species
of vengeful fury indeed has char
acterized the whole proceedings. It
is of that familiar kind which
San Francisco has always exhibited,
not only when she suspected that there
was some plot to iniure her, but also when
it was to be thought that projects under
discussion might rebound to her advantage.
In the present case it is possible that all
the obiurgations showered upon the heads
of the suspected Supervisors may be well
deserved We cannot tell how this is, and
for the reason that so far no evidence has
been adduced. 1t may seem somewhat
curious that all this fierce and unmeasured
vituperation should have been INDUCED in
before anything was proved, but this is an
other popularity Of San Francisco.
We cannot forget, either, that on a
former occasion the press and people of
that city howled and tore their hair, fgu-
ratively speaking, in opposition to pro-
| iect which would have been of incalculable
benefit to them and that they were within
a ir's-breadth of being inveigled into an
other undertaking which would have been
like a milestone round their necks. They
spurned the Goat Island plan, and they
wanted to mortgage themselves for ten
millions of dollars to the Atlantic and Pa
ciic Railroad. That, then, is the measure
of their wisdom and foresight, and
none who remember these things can
feel perfectly certain that the present
hubbub is not equally full of folly and
confusion OF judgment with those which
are past. No doubt the proposals of men
who are not engaged in railroad building or
management, to obtain franchises for bring
ing railroads into or around the city, are
open to suspicion. The presumption in all
such cases must be that the whole affair is
aspecnlation, though why itshould be called
Matchmaking more than the formation of
corners in the grain market it is difficult to
gee. The idea, however, that somebody
might make good deal of money by get
ting these franchises, and compelling all
railroads that wanted to enter the city to
pay them fancy prices for the right, seems
TO have occurred to too many people at
the same time. The so-called Bedtime
franchise, which is for a railroad to sur.
round the city, has indeed been DENOUNCED
with particular energy and ferocity,
though it really does not seem to be any
worse in principle than the others. There
may indeed be great hidden iniquity in
the undertaking, but this has not yet been
exposed, while the arguments used against
it have been very remarkable in their
way.
We are quite willing to be convinced
that these franchise seekers are all wicked
men, and that the Supervisors are venal
wretches, and that it would not be prudent
at the present time to grant any of the
franchises asked for. But what we cannot
admit is the validity of the arguments
which the San Francisco papers employ.
These enlightened journals appear to view
any proposition for facilitating shipments
in their city with positive horror, and this
is the more singular because they have al
ready, By their stupidity, driven the grain
loading trade away from there, and be-
cause this fact has been plain to all the
State for long time. The present howl
at the idea of belt railroad is absurd,
because it is not directed against this par
ticular enterprise, but against the principle
of belt railroads generally. It is asserted
that the city would be injured by having
a railroad, or several railroa Is, with tracks
along the city front. This objection is an
imbecile one. No city can possess COM
mercial Importance in these days which
does not facilitate shipments in every pos
sible way. San Francisco has always EUR.
sued narrow and suicidal policy in this
regard. She has constantly sacrificed
large part of her opportunities rather than
interfere with local industry of no conss-
quence and obsolete methods. If she pre-
fers, in the same way, to preserve her
water front from the noise and hustle of
active commerce, no doubt she can do SO,
but in doing it she will sign her own death
warrant.
Through the feeble mindedness of the
press and the purblindness of her mer-
chants she has done all she could to hamper
and embarrass the railroads already within
her boundaries, and now she is in danger OF
SO far overriding what may be juatifable
fear of bribery and corruption, as to enter
upon sort of crusade against her own in
terests. As to the Supervisors. it would
probably do no harm to hang them on gen.
eral principles, for if they have no. sold
out in the present instance, we have their
own word for it that several of them are
ready to sell out at all times. As to the
present franchises, they may be as unreason-
able as has been represented, and certainly
it cannot be judicious to grant franchise
to men who are VIGOROUSLY mere specu-
lators. But if San Francisco is ever to re-
cover the ground she has lost through her
folly and perversity in the past, she must
learn to discriminate, and TO avoid blind
assaults upon all who propose to enlarge
her communications and extend her bust
ness avenues. If she should begin by CIV
ing further privileges TO the railroad COM
panies already there, she would have the
satisfaction of knowing that they could not
avail themselves of these privileges with
out benefting her. Hitherto, however,