Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-19
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE" MAKES A
MISTAKE.

to task, saying that 81 lis utterances are in
remarkable contrast with the unanimous
"drift of recent legal decisions, and will
certainly jar on the public ear" 1t
further asserts that railroad abuses in
California have been carried to such an
"extent that the State is to-day the most
" complete illustration in existence of the
"modern tendency to monopoly" What
the Tribute means by its reference to
"the drift of recent legal decisions" we
think it could not explain, nor what any
legal decisions can have to do with the
matters upon which alone Commissioner
Armstrong appears to have spoken. Ger.
tainly there have been no legal decisions
demonstrating the existence of abuses. As
to the Tribune's statement concerning
California, it is proof of the labbiness of
thought which always confuses shadows
with substance. What does exist in this
State at the present moment is neither
more nor less than an anti. railroad cry
which was put up by greedy and unscrupu-
lous office-seekers and politicians, not for
the public good, hut for the furtherance of
their own base ends. There has undoubt.
eddy been more anti.railroad talk in Cali.
fornia than in any other State in the Union.
But there has also been less justification for
such talk. Again and again within the
past ten years have the anti-railroad howl
ers been confronted with the actual facts,
and on every such occasion they have been
compelled to abandon their positions.
For years these demagogues have been
clamoring through campaigns, only to re-
tire from their indefensible positions direct
lY fair test was made. We have had
Commission after Commission, legislative
committees by the score, to investigate
the railroad situation. Each and all have
been Obliged to admit that the alleged
abuses did not exist. General Stonemsn
and John I. Doyle were both Railroad
Commissioners and as such both of them
committed themselves to the position that
such measures as they now pretend to favor
were impolitic, unjust and impracticable.
Morris NJ. Estee, when a delegate to the
Constitution Convention, opposed the
"cinching" provisions against the rail
roads which were put in the organic law.
But all these and many other men who are
on record as condemning the demagogism
they now applaud, have been changed by
the greed of Office, and have Joined the
mendacious and uuprincipled cutlery against
the railroads. The Tribune altogether mis-.
takes the situation in this State. The
truth is that there were no issues between
the two parties, and 60 the Democrats,
with their usual absence of honesty, took
up The railroad question and made believe
that it was living and vital one. Then
the Republicans, not to be any better than
their opponents, followed suit, and under.
took to surpass the Democrats in their pre-.
tense OF hostility to the corporations. And
SO it has been brought about that the can
didates on both sides have nothing but the
railroad to talk about, and that between
them they have produced the appearance
OF great agitation.
The people of California, however, have
had no hand in this shameful business.
That they do not approve of it is made
manifest by the conspicuous absence OF all
enthusiasm from the campaign. Never
before have the meetings been so lifeless
and dull. It is admitted that the Republi.
cans have more good speakers in the field
than they have ever had before. But all
the elcquence of those speakers has failed
to put any spirit into the Canvass The
meetings everywhere have been thinly ct
tended, and there has been no response to
the appeals of the orators. The latter
have become greatly dispirited. They say
that they have never before encountered
so general an apathy. Tney pretend to be
unable to account for it, but the explana.
ton is easy enough. The fact is that the
people are not in sympathy with the anti
railroad howl, and because the dema-
gogues have insisted on making the cam
psign upon this issue alone, there is no
interest felt in it. 1t is further very sig
nitieant that whereas the Republicans
have made the boldest and largest bids for
popular appgoya! in this connection, and
whereas their speakers utter the widest
ard fiercest denunciations of the railroad,
their efforts everywhere have been the
most unsuccessful. In truth the people of
California are not such fools as the poll
tlcians think them. They have had so
much experience OF anti-railroal humbug
that they can no longer be taken in by it.
They know of their own knowledge that
the corporations are not the ogres they are
represented to be, and they have not for
gotten the long series of failures to prove
anti-railroad charges which is on record.
1t is fact which men of intelligence are
everywhere beginning to realize and see
the significance of. that whenever specific
attempts are made to demonstrate railroad
abuses, they break down. So long as
these abuses can be supported by mere
newspaper statements and other irresponsi.
bic exhibits, it is possible to retain in them
some show of truth. Bu. the moment
sworn and responsible tribunal undertakes
to Investigate them, they vanish like dis.
solving views. A few years ago the editor
of paper which had been very prolific in
this kind of charges, and which had de.
nounced the railroads in season and out Of
season, was. very naturally, subpenaed to
appear before Legislative Committee. and
tell what ne knew abou. railroad abuses.
But when this fellow, who had been for
years dealing in the most sweeping c,lum.
MES, was Intercepted by the committee,
he was forced to confess that he did not
understand the subject at all, and that he
had no information which could be of the
least use to the committee. He had been
accustomed TO deal with counters which
he thought could always be passed off for
genuine coin. He had been lying on a
wholesale scale, in fact, and when he had
the opportunity to prove what he had
alleged, he could only sink away, like a
dog with his tail between his legs.