Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-22

"a that the smallest branch in the obscurest
fhamlet would have portion OF its
" business controlled by the central power
''of our Government. 1t would be
'sErain on Government like ours to have
the direction of So. OO0, 600. 900 worth of
property placed in its hands.
~ The danger Of combination between diff
''ferent States and sections is so obvi-
"ous that it hardly needs to be men,
toned. The regulation of freight
charges could easily be managed SO
''as to cut off certain ports and States from
''all export trade. The general
effects of such an exercise of power upon
{" the character of our Government is
serious question. No other scheme ever
discussed has proposed such CONSOLE
dation of power as this. A change in
"forms of infinitely less consequence
"would excite universal indignation among
the people. Ii the control of $780,
100000 was given to Congress, includ-
cling the untold millions worth of freight
leach year, our Government would cease
''to be what it is now. We have barely
indicated the perils that would attend
such an assumption Of power; and those
"'perils begin to be incurred when Con
"gress begins in any way to control the
Interstate railroad traffic. Here we
find body which represents the best
experience of railroad management in the
country, taking substantially identical
grounds With Governor Stanford in regard
to the impracticability o! interstate regu-
lation, and the fact is significant. We may
add that the Massachusetts Railroad Com
missioners appear to believe that the true
solution of this great question lies in that
consolidation of railroad interests which is
now apparently approaching. In other
words, the Board is again at one with
Governor Stanford in maintaining that the
independence OF transportation ought to be
unrestrained.
Governor Stanford's argument from
first to last is on behalf of just this indie.
pendence. He contends that there is no
justification for the governmental interfer-
ence proposed, that it is alike contrary to
public policy and the spirit of republican
institutions, and thatit impossible through
any such methods to divest railroad owners
of control over their property, without
practising con6scation. If the people wish
to own and control the railroads, they
ought to buy them. Until they do buy
them they cannot own them, and until they
own them they can have no right to con-
troll them. His theory is that all abuses
in railroad management tend to eliminate
themselves when the management is
untrammeled, since all abuses are
business mistakes, and therefore to be
rectifed as matter of interest alone, as
soon as discovered. He insists strongly
also upon the mischief which would result
from cast-iron system of tariffs. Such
system would cripple transportation by
making 1T impossible TO carry loW-prlced
goods at or below the cost of shipment. In
other words the abolition of the maximum
would involve the destruction of the mini
mum. The entire letter is very forcibly
reasoned, and it is marked by settled con.
victions and thorough mastery of the fac
tors in the case. Certainly no ADLER
or more original presentation of this
side of the question has ever been
made, and while it necessarily deals
for the most part with considera-
lions growing out of corporate interests, it
embraces doctrines of government which
the country will have some day to accept,
or reject at its peril.