Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-13
A SHARP LETTER.
RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS CARPENTER
CRITICISES HIS CRITICS.
His Position elative to Regulating Freights
and Pares-Ee Recites Some Bis.
tory of the Board"

The following letter was written by Rail
road Commissioner G. J. Carpenter to the
proprietor of the Los Angeles Herald:
Joseph D. Lynch, Esq.-Dear Sir: Your
open letter found me four days after my ar
rival here, where for the first tine in more
than eight months l am trying to enjoy a
| little rest at home. But pursued and way
laid by restless foes, and Lynched by impa.
tient friends, there seems to be no peaceful
retirement or rest for me. So be it. With
out truce or parley, from my mountain heath
| return your earnest and friendly greeting,
with my defiance of the chivalrous camp
| followers and the plundering msrauders, who
style themselves the Democratic party and
seek to make it the guilty agent Of their ne
| farious purposes.
From the day I entered the Office of Rail
road Commissioner l have given to it's duties
and requirements my entire time and almost
undivided attention. Knowing little enough
of the subjects requiring my constant study,
without reading such newspapers as displayed
in their discussion the greatest ignorance and
assurance, it became necessary to seek in
formation where it could be found, and by
methods adapted to the purpose.
This was treated ss a studied atfront to
those scolding bawds of the press, who de-
manded extreme measures and ex parte de.
cisions dictated by themselves. And not
finding in the Commission subservient pur-
veyor and puppet, they mistake the echoes OF
their own vapid aud vindictive abuse and the
noisy response of windy blackguards for the
roar of a coming cyclone. To me their
furious outcry has been silence, and silent
contempt has been its answer. But, as you
suggest, the recognition which one can never
owe to foul.meuthed political outcasts may
be due to the common decencies of public
and private life which they insult and belle.
THE CHIEF PROMOTERS
| OF these shameless and malignant assaults
upon the Commission were first made con-
spicuous by their defeat at the San Jose Con-
vention. But from present appearances they
would seem to have achieved 1.-The insolence
of Office" without the credentials. And to
make their calling and election sure, they un-
dertake in the name of Democracy to change
and falsify its platform wherein it declares
THAT the railroad fares and rates should be
materially reduced determinations in favor
of persons and localities should be prohibit
| ed, y and promises that the party and its nom
inees will "relieve the people to the extent of
their Jurisdiction from the exactions and in
Justice now practic5d with impunity by the
railroad companies" By these clauses of the
resolution relating to railroad fares, freights
and determinations all questions Of time,
amount, percentage, process and principle OF
regulation and reduction were necessarily
left where they had been referred by the
| Constitution and laws. Not one of them was
predetermined by the Convention, which
promptly and decisively rejected the amend
ment offered and urged by Tom Fowler, pro-
posing a specific and uniform reduction of 20
per cent. Upon this final and definite dis
claimer by the Democratic party in Conven.
| tion of any power or purpose to usurp the
| functions Of Railroad Commissioners, or to
forestsll their decisions, it went with its
nominees to the country.
Led by Stonemau, the Democracy COM
menced its march to victory already
achieved. II needed only dsshiug snd re-
liable party journal at the chief city of the
State, not so much to assure, as to announce,
the coming triumph. The San Francisco
Examiner had not then sinned away the
character and good will inherited frem gen.
tlemen and Democrats. Although slow and
laundering, it could and should have had the
post of honor, and been useful and happy.
But blind to accidental opportunities. while
sulking in its garret, it Was beaten without a
rival. Furious with impoteut rage, it be-
came the mouth piece of a defeated minority,
by most of whom it is now held in deserved
contempt.
it growled at the head and fswned at the foot
of the ticket. With vicious enmity of
which it alone is capable, it brooded over the
antagonisms of the Convention, and in the
undermining interest of statesmen without q
biography or a following, it ignored and in
suited the best elements and most deserving
leaders of the party in the State. Secretly
plotting to get even at the election, it was
again doomed to disappointment Driven at
last to hopeless despair by defeats and victc-
ries which it was powerless to prevent, it
bewails the late success Of the Democratic
party as the death or dispersion of its polit-
icsl tribe; and moans and screams like a
Piute squaw at the funeral of her departed
brave. The position and prestige Of the
party we're blows
AT POLITICAL BUCKET SHOPS,
! Which left the Examiner shsrps on the street,
without license even to peddle their own
worthless paper. For them and their con-
federates there was left no margin for gam
bling puts, calls, spreads or straddles /; and
all concerned were duly notified beforehand
that Democratic suretysbips on pronissory
| obligations, other than those specified in the
platform, were revoked aud henceforth re-
fused. Spectators in wildcat contracts and
electioDeering shams; were told that they
must go elsewhere for accommodation indors-
/
party could neither be bound nor beaten by a
pledge.making campaign. To the extent that
such a campaign was afterwards insugurstea,
| for the selfish purposes of a few for forbid
| den special favors, it became and was a cut
| ting and scslpiDg war of competing dema-
gogues, without the capacity to lesd or sense
| enough to follow. Pretenders to virtues OF
which they never were accused. their only
chance to worry through was in wild scram'
Bile of falsehood and treachery, In which to
observe party usage, or to be decent, was to
challenge the honor of their enmity and op'
position.
Itis, perhaps, no cause of surprise, that in
the exceptional results Of such a contest, its
accidents, malice and treachery have been
prolonged. They have given to reiterated
pledges the semblance of performance tc
clustering pretense, the credit of earnest en-.
deavor, and to canting hypocricy touch OF
arrogance. Shamming to no purpose or to 9
bad one with airy importance, pretender'
and their dupes mistake their own sinister de-
msnds for constitutional requirements Tom
Fowler's discarded horizontal twenty pei
cent. amendment, for the Democratic plat
form demented demagogues for public beue
factors il hsted stun p-speeches, full oi
emptiness, for abouuding horns OF plenty,
and the pinchbeck stock.in-trsde Of political
peddlers and pawnbrokers, for the varied
staples of teeming industries. Thrice con
victed traitors whose abuse is q compliment
and whose praise is an insuffersble disgrace
whose lying imputstions of incompetency anc
corruption in others are only true if applied
to themselves, come swelling and staggering
from the guard-house Of the party to dictate
its policy, and from the prisons of the coun
try to obstruet and ssssil the administration
of its official trusts. Having no business OF
their own, they are looking with laborious
ideness to that of others. The incompetent
harlequin who farms out the business of At
torney.General, and returns only beggsr':
thanks for his salary, may oversee the Office
of another to the advantage Of his own.
ANOTHER REGRErPUL OLD FAILURE,
Dead SIS smelt, but pretending to be alive
again seeks as q demsgcgue to retrieve tbs
loss to himself Of resignation, which. had
it taken Judge from the bench might have
given lawyer to the bar. and something
more than screaming sandpiper to politics
And to such Incompatible frauds may be