Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-13

codifi I'D in Section 2173 OF the Civil Code,
were stated and made the criterion and limit
of the material reductions of fares and freights
to which the party in Convention had
committed itself. L could put in evidence a
letter written by me July IL, 1882, and pub
lished in the Butte Record, wherein, after re-
ferring to the spreading epidemic for vagrant
pledges, l entered my protest against pre-
Judging matters properly left to official in
yestigation and decision" and "declined to
predeternine cause of action, svowedly to
obtain the vote of party thereto" In my
letter of October 8, 1882, published in the
Examiner, after stating the functions of
Railroad Commissioner, requiring the
exercise of unbiased judgment" gave due
notice that l would make Il no promise incon-
sistent with the fearless exercise of such
judgment" Again, as on all occasions, the
common law rule which requires the charge
to be reasonable. is adopted and applied as
the measure and limit of the material re-
auctions promised by the Democratic party
and its candidates for the offics of Railroad
Commissioner" Thus as such officer, with
out any violation of pledgeE, extravires, or
otherwise, may respectfully leave to the re.
nowned Judge Bridlegoose the equivocai hon.
or of deciding csses by dice.
But hap.hazard cast of dice were better
than the ready made decretsl orders and de.
csions which irres sponsible and ofiicious dicta.
ters assume the power to impose upon the
Commission. To know what ought to be
done and how to do it, most Of them must be
put back to the common schools. From the
Chronicle and its barking sun-dog the Er
aHatner (neither dog nor Democrat), the most
that can be learned Is "how not TO do it. :"
How to do nothing but to irritate aud tease
q popular complaint and to know nothing
but how not to cure or relieve the aggravated
evil, would seem to have been their only
study. They have yet to learn that Govern
ment donations of lands and bonds to rail
road companies were prizes drawn from the
lottery of the Rebellion, and belong, with
the bloody shirt, to closed account of profit
and loss. They seem never to realize how
very idle and impertinent it is to wave
THE RAGGED SYMBOL OF LOST CAUSE,
With loud lamentation over the best and
most enduring of its collateral results. And
yet it is time for even the most superficial
solicitors for the giving and forgiving Govern
ment to know that national aid to the over
land roads was condition precedent only to
their construction and continued operation,
and to transportation of mails, munitions of
war, etc., fixed by explicit terms Of the grant,
ing act, AT fair and reasonable rates of
compensation, not to exceed the amounts
paid by private parties for the same kind Of
SERVICE"
This is the rule by which the Federal Gov.
ernment compensstes for services on all the
overland roads. 1t is adopted and codifed
in this State as follows "a common car
rier is entitled to reasonable compensation,
and DO more, which he may require to be
paid in advance. If payment thereof is re.
fused he may refuse to carry" (Sec. 2l73,
Civil Code.) It is, then, by this rule that
rates of fare and freight are to be regulated
And assuming the right to regulate, it is
stated 10 the lesdiug Granger case and in
many othsrs, as follows ' Ii there are no
statutory regulations upon the subject, the
Courts must determine what is reasonable" &"
The right to establish
the maximum of charge, as one of the means
of regulation. is implied. In fact, the COM
mon law rule, which requires the charge to
be reasonable, is itself the regulation of the
price," Mum. VS.. Illinois, Otto, 133 !;
Chicago vs. Iowa, H., 16l Peik VS.. chi.
cago, 4 I'd, 17S In the case last cited it is
said "This limit binds the Courts as well
as the people"
And liz Attorney-Generai vs.. Railroad
Company (35 Wis, 426), and numerous cases,
to determine what is reasonable compenss-
tion is held to be judicial, not legisls-
tive function" By the Constitution of this
State this function devolves upon the Com
mission, which in the last resort must enforce
its orders and decisions in the same Courts to
which it looks for settled rules of decision
and established principles of judicial fairness.
To find and decide what is reasonable COM
pensstion, the law throws open the schedules
of fares and freights, and with authoritative
finger points to the "chsrge and "rate of
charge" aud considers each with reference to
class of traffic and to conditions and cost of
service.
Rates" charges and rates of charges
for the transportation Of passengers and
freights," are specified in the section of the
Constitution creating the Commission as s1b-
ject-matters of its jurisdiction, and because
"rates of fares aud freights established by
said Commission shsll be deemed couclusively
just and reasonable, ID is none the less, but
all the more, duty to make them 50. II such
an obligation were susceptible of delegation,
to refer it to
SELFISH AND vINDICTIvR AGITAToRs,
Would be to abandon even the pretense Of
impartial justice. In their shameless and
vainglorious endssyor to make it the sport
Of crazy partisan controversy, instigated
by and for themselves, they ignore and de-
ride every essential principle of railroad SER
vice and regulation, and sll known rules of
dinate the primary question of reasonable
compensation, in its necessary relation to
the given service, TO the absurd demand for
an indiscriminate aud scslping reduction in
gross. With prsgmatic conceit, ignoring
conditions and cost of service, they demand
uniform rate of passenger fares at three
cents per mile, as the unconditionally right
one, but propose that rates ranging below it,
by an evasive subterfuge, shall be fixed at
what they are.
Their sovereign remedy for discriminating
rates of fares and freights is uniform reduc-
ton in the same ratio, which would leave
them relatively precisely what they were !;
and hence what the agitating patriots most
desire, a continuing cause of complaint.
Il is thus that controversies intended to be
eternal are forever renewed. Crying evils
are not only dry-nursed but are made worse
by aggrsvsting remedies, or suicidal measures
Of relief. For example, the demsgogues and
their dupes would subject grain shipments to
the exploded and impossible theory of equal
mileage. They construe the constitutional
prohibition of greater charge for short
than longer haul to mean equal rate per
mile, which at given and ascertsinable dis
tance from the centers of trade would equal
the value of freight and leave the distant
producer no other market than his mouth.
OO, dieu, III COusbEuiLS tue Clhuee VI Suo OOu-
stitution wherein it is expressly provided
that a railroad company may, for the pur-
pose of competing with any other common
carrier, lower its rates for the transportation
of passengers or freight from one point to
another" it is assumed that no service is
ever rendered for less than cost, and hence
that such competitive rates should be essab-
lished between all other points, to the heads
of rivers and the tops Of mountains.
If this sspient reasoning only took the
clause in question out of the Constitution,
the Commission, like that of Alabama or
Georgia, might permit and encourage coulpe-
tion where it exists, without attempting to
send it on FOOLS errand. where it is impossi.
BILE. 1t does more. 1t not only makes the
Constitution a snare and delusion to carrier
and shipper, but it haudicaps natural advan-
tsges with artificial distractions and gains q
less to all concerned. 1t makes the minimum
rate between two points, river-girt and water.
logged, the rate for round trip, up and
down, to all points and back again, in short.
peualt5 on the competing carrier and re.
strsint upon all competition Whatever.
of sotr