Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-17

| road tax cases decision. MOI Delng at that
time candidate, he thought he could afford
to stand for justice, and he took ground
which is known to be sound by every law.
yer who understands his profession. OF
course if Mr.. Estee's argument was sound
then, it is equally so now, and il applies
with precisely the same force to the Rail.
road Commission as to the State Board of
Equalization. In the same way General
Stoneman, as member of the State Board
of Transportation, went counter to nearly
all the positions he is supposed to favor
! now. In his report of 1877 he said great
many well.considered things about the
business of transportation. He opposed
all incorporate legislation. He declared
that such measures as the " Granger Acts -
were evidences of barbarism. He defended
the corporations from the attacks made
upon them, and intimated generally that
they were conducting their business with
fairness towards the people.
As to Mr.. Doyle, it IS claimed that he
wrote the report which General Stoneman
signed. Ii that is true it would be i'm.
possible to conceive CT wider departure
from his original positions than he has
made. No one can read that document
without being convinced that whoever
wrote it was friend to the railroad, and
pronounced opponent to all such vim
dictive legislation as Mr.. Doyle has lately
been advocating. In that report the
"cost Of service theory, which Mr.. Doyle
how supports, was analysed and shown to
be altogether tallacious and impracticable.
1t was emphatically declared that the cost
Of service never could become the standard
of charges. Mr.. Doyle's report of 1879
indeed is quite treasury of cogsnt argu.
ments against every one of Mr.. Doyle's
positions of 1882, and what is more, his
arguments of the former year completely
eat up his present ones. Now it is GER.
tainly very remarkable that these three
candidates should have SO radically changed
their attitudes, and it is all the more remark.
able because the principles OF the science of
transportation arenotmutable, butreztupon
axioms which may be said to be eternal.
1t cannot be believed that after man had
carefully worked out the business of trans
portation, and had convinced himself as to
its principles, any subsequent events could
cause him to change his convictions and
espouse all the theories whose faliacy he
originally satisfied himself of. And the
same thing may be said as to Mr.. Estee's
views On the limits of constitutional and
legislative regulation. As a lawyer he
perceived, when the Constitutional Con-
vention was in session, that no class of oc-
equations, no artificial or natural grouping
of citizens, could be Disseminated against
in the assessment of taxes. He knew and
pointed ont that this was in violation of
the United States Constitution. 1t was SO
then, and it is so still. Yet Mr.. Estee has
reversed his position. and now approves
that which he before condemned, and con-
demned, as the decision of the Circuit
Court has proved, with the strongest
warrant.
Why should, then, these persons have so
strangely turned their backs upon their
former positions? Is it possible to find
any other explanation of the remarkable
change than that which is afforded by the
fact of their candidature? Having re-
solved to seek office, it must be concluded
that they have determined to throw over
board all their convictions, to cut loose
from their past, and to say whatever in
their judgment is most conducive to their
popularity. This is certainly not placing
their action upon high moral plane. In
fact it is placing it upon an immoral
plane. But that is their fault alone. They
have made it impossible to explain their
course upon any other than sordid basis,
and unfortunately for them a sordid basis
fits the case completely. They have all
turned their backs upon the positions they
held when they were unbiased by selfish
motives. They are all anti-railroad"
because, and only because, they are candi-
dates for Office. Bat as regards Messrs.
Estee and Doyle, who are both lawyers,
we venture to say that Leither has the
least confidence or real belief in their own
propositions. In the case of Mr.. Doyle,
indeed, we have positive proof of this; for
in an interview published in the Examiner
few weeks ago, he expressed the belief
that the Railroad Commission, for which
he is to-day a candidate, would be declared
an unconstitutional tribunal by the Fed.
eral Courts.
1t is then matter of record that Mr..
Estee on the one hand, and Mr.. DOYLE on
the other, have declared their opinion that
the State Board of Equalization and the
Railroad Commission are both uncops.itu-
tional bodies, and that whenever test is
made they will go down. As regards the
State Board OF Equalization these predic.
tions have already been fulfilled, and the
decision which declares that Board invalid
also by direct implication does the same
for the Railroad Commission. Neverthe.
less Messrs. Estee and Doyle proceed in
their canvass as though the measures they
advocate were thoroughly practicable and
seriously possible, while they are both equally
cognizsnt of the fact that the whole ma,
chinery of the New Constitution for the tax.
alton and management of railroads has falleu
to pieces, and can never be availed of again.
And we ssy that it would be impossible to
advance any more cogent or convincing
proof OF the utter insincerity and duplicity
of these men than exists in the facts we
have presented. The plain and manifest
truth is that solely because they want offics
they are pretending to be in favor of meas
ures which they know to be at once unjust
and impracticable that for the sake of of
fee they are contradicsing their past record
fatty that in their professions of "anti
railroad sentiment they are knowingly
and deliberately firing blank cartridges
that they do not believe the principles they
put forward, and know that those princi
pies never can be put in operation. 1t il
not pleasant spectacle to witness, that O
men who might he resnactahta thns NAV