Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-29

dictate and control the subsequent employ
ment of the estate and the building.
The real origin Of the dangerous con.
fusion Of thought which has Of late years
led considerable element to believe that
the property in railroads is not private, but
quasi public, must however be sought in
the very last place where thinking men
would have expected to find it, namely, in
the decisions of the Supreme Court of the
United States. The unfortunate and mis-.
chievous opinion of that tribunal in the
Chicago Elevator cases has for years fur
nisned an armory of communistic theories
to the superficial, and to the large class of
political demsgogues. Under an increas.
ingly loose and vague Interpretation of the
phrase public uses, the masses have been
encouraged to adop. the doctrine tina. they
have right to dictate the terms upon
which they are to enjoy the fruition of Ger.
tain forms of investment; and the pro.
gress of this sophistical theory in the direc
ton OF naked confiscation has been con.
stantly stimulated by the rivalry of reck.
less and interruptions demagogues, bidding
against one another for the support of the
voters, by outdoing one another in their
promises of legalized robbery. Nor is it
possible to foresee the termination of this
kind of competition in injustice, SO long
as the present doctrines are upheld by the
supreme appellate Court OF the country.
1t is in vain to talk of an ultimate limit OF
reduction. As Governor Stanford forcibly
observes eff party methodstak the direc.
ton of promising reductions in the rates
"of transportation, and parties are to chal
"lenge each other to rivalry in bids of this
E" character, then the party that antici
"pates the ultimate logic of such con
test, and promises that transportation
under its administration shall cost moth
Sing, will at once surpass its competitor
sin the breadth of its conceptions and the
"splendor of its appeal to the spirit O.
confscation.
No thoughtful man eau fail to see thai
this is the tendency of the anti-railroad
agitation. Under the theory of public
right to regulate, public regulation viii
inevitably follow; and since in politics
he who promises the most usually secur ei
the largest support, so it is equally in
evitable that every office-seeker will offeI
to voters more and more of other people
property to engage their sympathy and Sc
cure their approval. For the growth
of this tendency the majority of the Su
preme Court are responsible. 1t cannot b
believed that they foresaw the consequence
of their decision, but it may very easil.
be believed that these consequences hav
by this time opened their eyes to the dan
ger and the fallacy of the principle thel
laid down by them. Governor Stanfort
appears to US somewhat too optimisti
in his concluding remarks. 1t may b
that as he says, "the enlightened sense o
Justice insepsrable from the civilization
"of the age" can be depended
upon to maintain unimpaired tn
rights of all citizens but it is at leas
not to be denied that the modern POLITICAL
recognizes in the doctrine Of corporate prop
erty confscation the most powerful popu
lar attraction, and that he has hitherto EN-
ployed it for his own aggrandizement wit
recklessness and defiance of ultimat
consequences which seem to promise YER
poorly for the future. Meantime the cas-
of the railroad has been made, and mad
strongly and well, by Governor Stanford
1t is not to be expected that those VIII
have heretofore attacked the transports
ton, interest without reason, will nov
abandon their hostile attitude becaus
reasons are given them. But they will b
compelled to proceed in more open disrs
gard of equity and candor, and to assume
under thin disguise, the role of q Com
munist and cenfscator which they hav
undertaken to enact.