Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-25
THE RAILROAD CONTRACT SYSTEM


plank, the committee that adopted it, and
the Convention that ratified it, were each
and all ignorant OF the subject, each and
all proceeded upon the vaguest hearsay
evidence, yet each and all were willing to
commit themselves to proposition which
from beginning to end is unjust, calumni.
Gus, and absurdly impracticable. 1t would
really seem that the people who advance
these preposterous and imbecile PROPOSE
tions had worked themselves, through con-
slant hearing of their own platitudes, into
the belief that the railroads were absolutely
without any rights, either in law or equity;
that they were public enemies, and that
they deserved no more consideration than
so many pirates No other frame of mind
can explain the rabid ferocity of the parti
san attacks upon the transportation inter.
est, or can account for the predominant
unreasonbleness OF the views held conce rn-
ing it. As regards the contract system it
is the simple fact that there is nothing
wrong, unfair, oppressive or Objectionable
about it. The railroad proposes to give
special facilities to any shipper who will
| give all his business to it. The very form
| OF the proposition presupposes the con-
sideration that this arrangement shall be
advantageous to the merchant. He is under
no compulsion. He need not make con
tract. Ii he declines to do SO the open
rates are at his disposal. 1t is not and
never has been true that the open rates are
purposely put SO high as to compel mer.
chants to enter into contracts. That is a
falsehood deliberately invented by the
aati-railroad howlers in order to Justify
their malignity.
The fact is that any merchant can ship
by the opsn rates without Inconvenience,
and that thousands do so ship constantly. II
merchants who are in particular lines find
that their rivals in the same lines are
undersellipg them because those rivals have
contracts, and if the merchants are thus
compelled to seek the same advantages,
they have no right to complain. They are
thus only subject to the competition which
is the life of commerce. The business Of
railroads is to carry freight and passengers
and it is their duty and interest alike tc
use all methods which can increase theil
traffic and returns. Nogreater nonsense ha.
ever been talked on any subject than on this
contract system, and no man has evel
talked more of this nonsense than Mr.
Estee. The contract system is 4.eiEher
more nor less than an application of veneer.
able business principle. 1T is not nov.
city. 1t is SIS old as commerce. 1t is
not f"r:i of coercion or oppression. II
Is necessarily mutually advantageous to the
railroads and the merchants. AS matter
! of course it is intended to rival and if DOS.
sible break down ocean competition. II
is the express business and function of the
overland railroads to compete with the
ocean. That is what they were built for,
among other things, and he m ast be sim.
pleton indeed who thinks seriously that
their competition with the ocean route is
a valid cause of complaint against them.
A great attempt has been made to show
that the guarantees inserted in the con,
tracts are huniliating to she shipper.
This is balderdash. No horest man car
find fault with thsse guarantees. When
Richard Harrison did so be made it ar.
parent that what he really wanted was q
contract so loosely drawn that he would be
enabled TO cheat the railroad company
under II. He Was enraged because the
company had the business shrewdness to
demand guarantees for the faithful per.
formauce OF his stipulations. And that j.
the true explanation of whatever denun.
citation of the system comes from actua
shippers, though we are confident that il
thecustomers of therasroad could be polled
not five per cent. of them would be found tc
have any cause of complaint in the prem.
Uses. the railroad says to its customers
"We will give you special rates if you
"will give us all your business; but since
'if you do rot give Us all your bushes
''we shall lose by the contract, we ought
"to be allowed to assure ourselves, should
I.SSH5 pit arise on that point, that you are
g fairly with US" That is all
thei1 pot it. And il is therefore per.
fectly clear that those who object to the
guarantees in the contract are men who dc
not want to make any contracts unless
they can ge. the better Of the party of the
other part. What possible objection can
an honest shipper have 70 the conditions
inserted? If he is acting in good faith he
certainly cannot be ashamed to show tina,
he is doing so. The conclusion is inevi
table that only those who are not acting in
good faith have any reason or motive fol
objeotiDg to the guarantees demanded.
But the truth is that the guarantees re,
ferred to were adopted in the first place a,
the instance and request OF honest ship
pers, TO protect themselves and not the
railroad, against the tricks of unscrupulous
rivals who were not above attempts to
swindle the corporations at every oppor.
tunity. Yet these guarantees have beer
the target at which every demagogue and
malignant has fred his most venomed
shafts for months, and when they are sci
aside there remains very little of the in,
dlctment against the contract system. In
fact this whole attack is by far the most
Hlmsy and insubstantial tina. has beer
made, and it does not need any gift Of
prophesy to predict that if legislative
committee is ever directed to investigate
bill drawn in accordance with the Repub.
lican platform, it will be compelled to re.
port that there is literally no cause of &C.
tion in the premises that the charges pre-.
ferred are wholly false and that the con.
tract system is in every PARTICULAR az
legitimate and as beneficial to the public
as the most general and the best estab
lished PRACTICES of ordinary commerce. The
clamor against tho system has been AZ
conspicuous for ignorance as for f.
rocitv. Il has had neither reasou
nor far behind it. 1t is one of those
sham issues which are nowadays manufac
tured by demagogues expressly for cam.
paign Purposes, and are never intended to
be head of after the campaign. It has
been taken up and dilated upon by men
who have no transportation interests who
do not e Up pound Ct anything from one
years erd to another, and who have no
business knowledge of the question. As