New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-21
MIR. COHEN,S LETTER.


MR. COHEN'S LETTER.
NEw-YoRK March IA. 1888
To The Honorable the Board Of Raiioad Commissioners "
the STATE cf Ooiiforn'a.
GENTLEMEN: have the honor to acknowledge letter
from your president sent to my Office San Francisco
asking Inc TO designate q time when can appear Deloro
you and give my views upon the subject OF regulating
the charges OF railroad and Other transportation COM
panes and upon such other matters as are by the Cou
stitution and laws OF the State OF California wh your
Jurisdiction.
The letter Is accompanied by number OF questions
which am requested to prepare myself to answer.
regret that 1t did not reach in time to reply IN per-
son. received it but few hours before my departure
from San Francisco, and therefore respond only Id
this manner.
But before proceeding to do so, take leave to say
that although recognize your authority to require the
attendance OF any person you may desire to examine
regret that you have called upon me to testify in
matter as to which, from my past well-nown relations
may not be considered an impartial witness Wme the
power conferred upon you by the Constitution ana stat
ues of the state of California general IN that IL relates
to all railroad and transportation companies yett
Ne understood and 1t is the fact that the principal CD
jecs Of your jurisdiction are the Central ana the
Southern Pacific railroad companies and such other
companies railroads within their control Iis
equally well known that for years my relations
with the gentlemen having the management or those
roads have not been friendly In fact have been ana
am yet engaged in important ltigations adverse to
their interests In that VIEW IL would certainly nave
been preferable for you have sought your information
from other source-one that could not De neId
eVsr NV do duty to comply With Your request shall do
so to best Of my judgment and ability leaving IL 70
you determine how far my views are affected by tue
hostile relations for many years held toward
the principal corporations whose business now comes
within your control
DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
Cor tutfo nj he Of
that your body shall have the power and 1t shall be
you- duty establish rates Of charges for the trans
portaOn OF passengers and freight by railroad or other
transportation companies and publish the same from
time TO tme with such changes you may make. This
certainly extraordinary and very extensive power
to be ntrsed By constitutional enactment to any body
of men, and should be exercised with great caution and
only after due and patient inquiry into all those facts
and circumstances due understanding OF which will
enable you administer your office in such manner
As to result public good and perpetrate no injus-
tce upon the corporations whose property and business
ia thus taken of their hands and confded to your
official regulation. In this connection I venture to
remind your honorable body that nothing will moro
certainly Illustrate the object which the trainers Of our
Constitution had view than hasty or t-consdered
action upon your part. n the tariff. which you are
called upon TO frame, shall be unjust and yrannical IN
il, provisions toward the railroad corporations, while the
injury TO the corporations will be for the time rrepar-
result checking, if not preventing for long period
of time to follow any further legislative Interference
with or regulation OF railroad management In other
words an abuse Ct any OF your powers TO the injury OF
railroads. will inevitably result to the disadvantage OF
the people Undoubtedly the convention that framed
the Constitution. from which you deive your powers
contained many extremists whose avowed purpose was
TO act harshly and unjustly TO railroad and other
TRANSFORMATION companies yet the people who adopted
the instrument had such object in view The purpose
of every honest citizen who voted for the Constitution
and made organic law OF the State wss to provide
Il DO iy OF men who would do full and complete justice
40 far as their ability extended, between shippers and
carriers II It had been proclaimed in advance OF the
vote on this instrument that its intention to confer
power upon three commissioners OF the State OF Cali
fornia to conscate the property Of any railroad cor
pOraon IL needless for me to remind you that such
mower never would have been conferred. the Consttu
ton would not have been adopted All that the people
of California ask Of you is that you will approach the
con deraton OF the questions which condec to you
u calm and judicial spirit; that you will not determine
the questions. any of them. ntrustcd 10 you by the
Constitution, until you have that sufficient evidence
which every well regulated and Impartial judge insists
upon having before he will pass upon the rights or inter
ests OF hs fellow II hardly necessary for Inc
10 suggest TO gentlemen OF your experience and learning
in the law that jurisdiction means hearing and deter
mination, not determination without hearing; aud
venture TO say that any action the part OF your board
which shall proceed upon any other theory than that OF
right and Justice founded upon sufciency Of legal
evidence will not receive the appreciation OF those
whom It IL proposed by such action The sober
second thought OF the people OF state may always be
relied upon In the interests Of justice and good order
aud any officer, matte, whether ntrusted with eK-
ccutiyc legislative judicial functions who shall be
moved by super scryceabe zeal in tho supposed inter
of the people or from any motive to perperae an
Injustice against the property rights OF any
matter whether corporation or an individual, will find
To his cost has mistaken the temper OF those
~
COMPLAINTS AND RELIFF
With these preliminary remarks, pass to one OF the
principal questions you have desired to 1t Is
"a follows:
"What, in you judgment, The principal grounds Of
complaint aOilIisi rdIrOad aud transportation c0mDa-
MRS. and Of ,chieh the peope Of this STATE desire reii by
the action Of his board p
say in reply that in my opinion based upon several
wears of experience and discussion, both public and pr
vae the principal benefit be derived from the exist
cnce Of your body is such action will pre- vent trans
portaton and especially railroad, companies from
Justly discriminating between persons places and
will compel every carrier to give to every shipper the
same rights privileges and advantages for the same
CONDENSATION gives to every other person similarly
situated This course includes redress OF all the
alleged grievances which claimed TO have arisen
from the practice OF making special contracts and
special rates tho transportation OF merchandise In
other words do not believe that the people Of this State
care so much for the regulation OF the prices TO be
charged for transportation as they do that every one
having occasion TO railroads shall he treated alike
that they shall be served in the order Of their application
and for the same consideration.
In rotations to the public railroad should be con-
slered and treated common highway. and 1t should
not be permitted to charge man for the transpor
OF his property any higher rate than charges to
the most favored person. It, is in my Judgment, this
practice that much the iwill of the public against
railroads is due 1t the most perncious Of all abuses
pertaining to the management and operation of iail
roads, and is the that calls for the most vigorous
official efforts to abae. II allowed to exist unchecked
competition I'm the ordinary business Of life would he
simply impossible. The favorie of the managers OF
railroad, controlling the transportation particular