Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-05

| what the Board Is gwen TO 90. Ii tne
Board can do this, can act so as to establish
rates alike satisfactory to shipper
and Commissioner, he will feel like
sincerely congratulating the Commits
sioners on accomplishing that which
has never yet been done by any
board vested with like powers, or by any
directory of any railroad company within
his knowledge. He believes such accom-
| plishment to political economic impossi-
| bility. A just regulation by law of the
use of property in railroads, except by es-
tablishing such maximum rates as carriers
seldom find it for their interest to ap-
proach, can no more be done than the
regulation of the use of any other proper
| ty. Whenever a popular assemblage or
the law. making power of any State or COM
monwealth can arbitrarily fix the value of
the use Of all other property, it may be en-
| abled, intelligently and fairly, to fix the
value of the use of railroad property.
Whenever the Board can say that the
owner of real estate shall receive for the
use of such property only such rates as
may be designated by statute or otherwise,
or when it can cay that the laborer or arti-
san shall receive for his toll or his skill only
official board or person, we will then have
| approached somewhere near determine.
ton of the questions asked He. believes
this cannot be done, because it never has
been done, though, as railroad history
shows often attempted. No tariff ever pre-.
sented directory by it's freight agent,
which he has arranged, as he believes, so
as to be proper for adoption, has been
found to be entirely operative ; and it has
always been necessary to contide to some
officer Of the road power TO alter the tariff
from time 70 time, as the exigencies and
requirements of shippers and their business
require. He adds: "When you have
| fixed the value of the use of the property
of the railroads within your State for the
transportation of persons and property by
an arbitrary and fixed tariff, which shall
be fair to the shipper, and not do injustice
to the carrier, you will have fixed the value
of every mans labor, not only within your
| Jurisdiction, but in every part of the world,
who in any way contributes to the con-
struetion or maintenance of the railroads
you design to control"
As to the cost of road being a factor
in fixing the tariff of charges, he thinks it
is not included and has nothing to do with
it. Il is not an essential element in deter
mining the value of the service rendered
in transportation. The value of the
service rendered by a road running through
valley, with neither grades, curvatures,
cuts, embankments nor expensive bridges,
may be greater to the patrons of that line
than the service for the same distance over
another road very much more difficult of
construction. The whole subject is one of
supply and demand. The main question is
What is the value of the service rem.
dered? And l cannot see how, in deter.
mining that question, the mere cost of the
property becomes of any moment. Rail
road property is subject to the same
natural laws as any other property"
The value of railroad property fuctuates
as with all other property. If it were the
law that the State would permit only such
charges as would afford an interest upon
the cost of the road, there would be no
more railroads built. With equal reason
the Board might enact that the owner of a
house should be limited to rental of legal
interest upon the cost of the building and
ground. The only proper subjects to be
taken into account in determining what Is
fair compensation for the transportation
of persons and property is the value of the
service performed and the cost of it's per-
Torrance. But as both these elements are
constantly changing, it must necessarily
result, as l have heretofore pointed out,
that 1t is no easy thing to say, for any
length of time in advance, what such
charges should be. As to whether three
cents mile for passenger transportation
would be proper maximum, he says the
question, to some extent, he has already
answered. The greatest profit is found in
low rate of fare, but that is subject to
the qualification that the population is
sufficiently numerous to increase travel by
tempting it with low rates. Between all
the centers Of population in California
three cents is as high rate as the compa-
MES charge. But 1t would not be fair
rate as maximum for local travel. There
are points between which it would be de.
cidedly unjust to require the companies to
transport passengers at three cents mile.
| Take the county of San Bernardino, be.
tween Cotton and Yuma, distance of
about 200 miles, over which there is very
little local business. Three cents a mile
between those points would not be fair
compensation, nor would three cents mile
| from Sacramento to Truckee
No more grevous injury can be visited
on the people of California than to estab-
lish rates that will destroy the value of
railroad property. Competition is the so.
luton for the problem involved, but admin.
istration of the law to prevent capital
In railroads from enjoying the same profit
enjoyed by capital in other investments
will delay and put competition in jeopardy
| L, = sc A Il. i
measure, and urged its adoption now he
is convinced it was fortunate for the public
interest that it did not become a law, b..
cause in the mutations of business and pro-
| duction and the wants of the producers and
business have become oppressive to rail-
roads and to shippers. Under it, or any
similar bill, the Southern Pacific Railroad
could not have been constructed, nor the
| South Pacific Coast road His experience
| forces him to the conclusion that the most
effective manner of obtaining cheap car
riage is to leave the whole subject to the
higher law of competition. Competition,
however, cannot be obtained by an enforced
unjust tariff. On the contrary, it would
be the most effectual means of shutting
the door to it. The agitation that has pre-.
vailed in California, and the laws, both
organic and statute, that have been
adopted and passed looking to the official
regulation of the use of corporate property,
| have already done our State much damage
He has found leading capitalists averse to
investing in railroads in California because
of the danger of agrarian legislation. He
points out at some length the incalculable
benefit of the construction of the Southern
| Pacific Railroad TO California, and, in con-
clusion, reviews in detail the advantages of
that construction and the various lines pro-
jscted to facilitate the business interests of
California and give the desired COMPETE
tion, and it is for tine Commissioners TO say
if their acts shall deter the construction of
the new lines. He says finally, Z" The
opinions which have expressed are those
which now entertain, based upon ex-
perience and knowledge of the relations Of
carriers to their patrons, and they are ex-
pressed in the most perfect good faith to
your Board and the public whom you
ranresent That good faith has connnelled