Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-05-29
Gor. Stanford on Railroads.

The New York Commercial Eul- letin publishes lengthy interview with Leland Stanford, relative to the recent comments of the Chamber of Commerce on his letter.
 He defended the Central Pacific freight discrimination as follows San Francisco lies on a beautiful bay, and is in a position to command the com merce ol the Pacific. Its merchants can exact a lower rate of freight ana the railroads arc satisfied with mar rower margin of profit than in the case of Salt Lake, yet, in its turn, Salt Lake is benefited by the rail- road. Its freight is taken to the sea board twenty times cheaper and much more rapidly than if the road did not exist. The merchant at Rochester is obliged to pay higher freight to the seabOard than the merchant at Butia- To. IL is his misfortune thas he does not do business at a point Of advan- tagc, through which most of the grain for the seaport passes. The only remedy is tO pull up stakes and settle in Buffalo. But if the merchant al Rochester complains, what shall we say of tEe vast multitude of Consum- CTS? Railroads are not benevolent institutions, but they are bcnlticent. Cheap transportation for through freight has rendered starvation almost impossible. The few thousands of landlords in England may not like Il, but the vast multitudes of consumers. the world over, have been benefited by the system.
 (" How about determinations made 10 individuals living in some locali tiesy"
 Governor Stanford sgid hc could con Ceive of circumstances where this would be justItiable, as when com peung road giving cut rates, and i. was necessary Tn self-deiense 10 do the same. Under these ecircumstanceS a man of Chicago, for instance, might get a cut rate which his neighbOr might not enjoy, but the Governor could not see how the practice of making disc-iminations between par ties living in the same town could be justified except i'll special circum- stances. His road has never made such discriminations at any period of it's history, nor does the Governor be- lieve that any road makes a practice of discriminating rates, because of tavOritism, to any individual. It IS unbusincsslikc. Does a barker loan money to a friend cheaper than to q stranger, other things being equal? Is il a rule of business to show favor itism m this way:
 |" How about the Anti Monopoly movements"
 Governor Stanford did not think 1t would last much longer than the Granger movement did. Both are founded on false premises. It is in- correct Co call railroads a monopoly. The only real mOuOpolies in the cOun- try are those created by patent laws. For instance, the Governor under stands that +. E. Ihurbcr (whO is so active in the Anti Monopoly move menu has patent for making OleO- margarine, and if he were so dishOn- est as to sell it for butter, no ore could enter into competition with him. On the other hand, under the corporation laws of California, a fee of Sl0 will pay for articles of incor- poration which will enable a com pany to build line of railroad in the State parallel to his own. A railroad company is liable tO error of course, in common with all institutions, but It is more likely to be uniformly just than any single individual would be. A railroad company lays down for the conduct of it's employees laws winch the common sense of business de mand. The employees cannot deviate from these laws They are given no latitude for individual judgment or caprice. On the other hand, the meI- chant is h!s own master. He can change hIs methods and his rules st any moment, when his passions, prejudice or greed controls him. So long as this is a representative Gov ernment-sO long as the majority rules in this country-,here can be no danger from railroad corporations. They cannot exist in autagOnism L" the will of the majority, and they cannot undertake as a majority to Overrule the wishes of the majority.
 Governor Stanford spoke briefly of the progress of the Southern Pacific railroad, which is proceeding al the rate of two miles day, and said that next year California would be in di- rect communication with New Orleans.