Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-12
THE PROFIT OF REFLECTION.

than Vlrulen6. halirOad rabies is manifest
in the constant frothing in editorial col
umns. 1t hesitates at nothing in this
month of February, and Whites with as
much heartiness as it misrepresents. Il is
determined, If beating of tomtoms and a
cracking of whips can distract attention,
that men shall not have time to reflect upon
the vicious legislation being engineered
through the Legislature. Itrequires moral
and physical courage of a high order for
conscientious men to avow their conyic-
tioas, if they do not happen to agree with
the fantastic ideas of the malicious press.
"Cinch bills !" must be swallowed whole,
however nauseous, and the baresuggestion of
error and injustice in them brings the entire
rabid pack about the legislators heels. The
party lash was never piled SO Justify as
low, and where that cannot reach, threats,
intimidation and abuse are employed.
Some of the attacks upon those who are
operating leading industries, that have &C.
complished moro in the development Of the
State and the advancement of her best in
terests, than any other, if not of all other
agencies, are bestial, and degrade journal
ism. These self-appointed guardians of the
public interests stop at scarcely anything
in the vocabulary Of indecency and false
hood. They are resolved that the people
shall not coolly reflect. but it
viii profit men to pause 10 the white
heat of strife engendered by this suicidal
contest over railroad regulation, and con-
slider if after all the ends sought to Re at.
tanned are to result from the means en-
ployed. The relations between the shipper
and carrier should be of the most cordial
character. Their interests are mutual, aud
would never have been disturbed had not
prejudices been fostered and passions in
famed by political demagogues, who have
only selfish aims in view. There can re-
main no doubt in the candid mind that had
shipper and carrier been left to adjust
rates between them there would have been
harmony of result. and each interest would
have been conserved. The laws OF com.
merce are immutable. The traffic of the
world will not yield to the statutes of men,
but always has worked, and always will
work out, its own purposes and accomplish
its own ends. There are liz, 600 miles of
railway in the United States, equipped at
cost of S., 900, 900. 900. The companies en-
ploy over 100000 persons and pay out
about S500,000,000 in wages annually.
The commerce resulting from freight car.
riage of nearly 400, 900, 900 tons, by mar
rowing the distance between seaboard and
interior, and consequently moving to mar.
ket more of the products of the land, SO
vastly increased the exports of the coun-
try as to turn the balance of trade in our
favor. Such an important factor as this in
our national prosperity, it has been pro-
posed, shall be bound by infexible and un-
yielding rules of the statute. The princi-
pie sought to be established ignores mutu-
atty of interest. between shipper and
carrier, and treats them IS antagonists it
proceeds upon the theory that the one can
prosper only at the expense of the other.
A more fallacious and destructive doctrine
cannot be conceived. 1t assumes that the
shipper has no voice in fixing rates. The
truth is, he has more power in that direc-
ton than any statute can give him, and
statutes will hamper him more, in the end,
than the carrier. It is an axiom that goes
without saying, that the producers and
transporters of country like ours are so
mutually dependent one upon the other
that injury cannot result TO one without
being just as severely felt by the other.
None more keenly than the transporter
realizes that high rates for carriage dimin-
ish the volume carried and retard the de-
velopment of the country, upon which he
must depend for his patronage. No one SO
| thoroughly as he realizes that excessive
charges invite rivals to share the business
with him. These are the chief regu-
lators for the transporter. On the
other hand, the producer realizes that
the carrier must have fair profit in order to
furnish adequate service; that capital will
seek the safest and easiest rewards that
as the volume of traffic increases the rate
diminishes that the permanent settlement
and development of country is the best
guarantee for low rates for he knows, be-
yond the necessity of telling, that the
country line of transportation traverses
must afford it its support, and just in pro-
portion as his efforts to populate and adj
vance the country are successful, just in
that proportion is the permanency of the
transporter and the lowness Of the rates
assured and also that in proportion as
hostile legislation, contest, strife and IN
certainty retard development, so do they
cripple transportation, alarm capital and
reduce the adequacy of the carriers service.
He also knows that long lines under one
management are far more economically OPP
Grated, in his interest as well as that of the
carrier, than are several snort lines over
the same route under several managementr.
These are undeniable truths they have
stood the test, and have never been success
fully asssiled. The day is net far distant
when the demagogue will be relegated to
obscurity, his sophistical refnements evsp.
Grated by the rays of justice, and the line
be iHfexibly drawn beyond which statutory
law may not pass in its effort to bind our
commerce in bonds that shall make it easy
prey for its enemies. The malicious press
will pronounce these old and worn sayings,
and that is true; the malicious press does
not venerate the truth for its age.
THE GRAND JUAY REPORT.
The Grand Jury of this county, after a