Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-07
The second Letter.

SAN FRAEoIsoo, February 2, 1883.
The Honorable Beard Of Railroad Commissioners
Gentlemen Following my communication Of yes
terdsy, desire to adj few comments on the ques
tiens submitted to your honorable Board in the ex-
animation Of January 23d. IL Is hardly necessary,
perhaps that | should say that rates OF fare vary
very materially upon different roads, and gov
erned largely by business offered and the nature
Of the country through which the roads run, some,
especially those in the Eastern States being located
in large manufacturing center5, are enjoying the
patronage of frequent and larPe-sized towns and
cities, with the adjacent country thickly settled,
giving amount Of traffic per mile far in excess Of
that which could be expected to be derived Dy roads
on this coast for many years to come
COST OF OPERATING.
Rates OF fares are not only governed by the vol.
ume OF business, but by the cost of operating For
the former, take as an example the case of Massa-
chusetts compared with California For the latter,
the greatly increased cost OF fuel and many other
incidental operating expenses, must be taken into
consideration. The organic law under which you
are operating, in its application exceeds the objects
intended to be attained IL these matters not
fully weighed and considered. II does not provide
ways and means for furnishing us with rails, fuel
and other supplies at reasonable prices OBJ
tanned by roads OF the East. Take an example
the cost OF the fuel used by roads in California
alone. careful calculation of the business of 1851
as compared with the Pennsylvania Railroad be.
tween Pittsburg and Philadelphia, shows that could
be favored with fuel at prices obtained by that
company we would have been ab to reduce the
aggregate charges for passengers within the State
S659, 600, or to average of 2.07 cents per
mile, against 2 6S CENTS the actual average rate
per passenger per mile within the State.
IsoNs-DIssEIIIEATIoN OF ERROR.
You will bear in mind that we are long distance
from the manufacturing centers as compared with
the Pennsylvania road and the same thing is ap-
DieAble to iieasly z articles 49,, including labor
Certain few of the community seem necessarily
agtated by doubts Of the present and fears for the
future, ever rejecting and commenting on the i'm
probable, much to the neglect OF useful industry
There are no truths proclaimed in the ideas ad-
vanced. They diffuse all abeut them error and
falsehood, and it is not to be wondered that You
gentlemen, just from the people, feel it ncumbeRton
you to make diligeEt search and inquiry into this
much,vexed question, born of anti-railroad halluci
nation.
THE MERGED AND LATHR0P CASE
Take a single illustration the Point raised by
one OF the Commissioners, d5 observe in the course
Of testimony taken during my absence, relative TO
the rate between Lathrop and Merced which is re-
ferred to as the greatest cause of complaint and
which is understood by you gentlemen to be exceed
ingly high. venture the assertion that not one Of
your Honorable Board Of Commissions rs or even
our patrons. will regard the rate excessive when
assured that for the endar year 1882 there was an
average OF less than two passengers per day, each
way, between the two stations named upon which
the company earned daily 50 90 each. Yet this is
that portion of the road where patrons are
furnished with two daily passenger trains equipped
with engines and cars, in all their appoints second
to none on this continent, and the writer speaks
from observation and knowledge having recently
passed through twenty-six States and Territories
Most respectfully,
A. N. TowNE, General Manager