Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-07
RELIABLE MR.. FooTB.

RELIABLE MR.. FooTB.
In a recent editorial comment upon that
very negative document, entitled 1.-The
Minority Report of the Commissioners of
Transportation, we challenged a state
ment of fact put forth therein. We showed
successfully that the statement put forth
as fact over the signature of Mr.. Foote
was untrue, and that the untruth was due
and chargeable to either ignorance or men
dacity.
We propose at this time to call public
attention to another statement put forth
as fact in a sober State paper and to ex.
pose the falsity of that statement. We
shall do this plainly, simply, but at the
same time so thoroughly and irrefragably
that even the most ardent admirer of
Mr. Foote'S misconceptions of duty, or even
Mr. Foote himself, snail stand convicted
in the court OF his own judgment.
In the discussion of the transportation
problem of this State the influence upon
the average rate per mile of the passenger
traffic between San Francisco and Oakland
has been frequently referred to. Mr..
Foote has evidently supposed that very
large point might be made against the rate
of transportation on this coast by separat-
ing out from the aggregate this factor of
local passenger transportation between
San Francisco and its suburban dependen-
cies. This he did, and ascertained that by
making this deduction the average rate per
mile per passenger in California was 8. y
cents that the average rate, including the
Oakland and Alameda traffic, was ). 90
cents.
Averages are obtained everywhere by
treating aggregates. But Mr.. Foote wanted
to make special showing, and one as
unfavorable to the transportation lines as
the very impartial genius OF this public
officer might invent. To do this he aban-
doned the ordinary method of treating az
gregates, and, subtracting the lower rates,
founded his average upon the basis only of
the higher rates charged in the system
Now, having done this, Mr.. Foote takes
the result and attempts to compare it with
the average rate charged upon Eastern
roads. 1t was certainly known to him
that the one-sided figures produced by
subtracting tne lowest rates from the az
gregate, u be determinate of anything,
should be compared with rates deduced by
the same process upon Eastern systems.
We charge distinctly that Mr.. Foote
knows that in every commonwealth of the
State there are particular portions where
tae population is more dense, where
suburban towns, by reason of intimate COM
munication with large cities, furnish large
volume of traffic, and that the Oakland
situation has its parallel in the transporta.
ton system OF nearly every State in the
Union. AZ, for instance, the suburbs Of
Boston in the State Of Massachusetts,, of
New York in the State of New York, of
Philadelphia in the State Of Pennsylvania,
Chicago in The State of Illinois, etc. But.
notwithstanding his knowledge upon this
subject, Mr.. Foote finds an average after
deducting the lowest schedule of trans.
portstion, and attempts to institute a com.
parison between the average rate thus pro.
duced and the averages declared to exist
where no such partial and false standard
has been set up,
But this is not the full extent of Mr..
Foote'S otfense. In addition to unfairness
he has been guilty of distinct and specific
untruth, of which untruth we shall
speedily convict him. He says: the
average rate Of 3.72 per mile is twice as
great as that exaot=d by all Eastern roads
transacting any considerable volume of
business, and, in my opinion, this rate
should be reduced
If this statement is true, then all East
ern roads transacting any considerable
volume OF business are charging an aver.
age of one-half Of 3.72 per mile, which
would be Sc per mile per passenger. By
this indirect method, then, Mr.. Foote has
declared that the average rate of trans
portation on all considerable lines in the
United States is l.S6 per mile.
"Poor's Manual for 1883, page 6. saws:
The number of passengers moved one
mile in the New England group was ], I07,.
O45 Os6, at a charge of ,. l cents per mile
in the Middle States group, 2,356, 22G. G7G,
at charge of - cents per mile; in the
Southern group, 559, 81, $50, at a charge
Of &c cents per mile; in the Western
group, >. Jos, 26S, O37, at a charge of 80
cents per mile in the Pacific group, $751;.
942, 279, at charge of 3 cents per mile.
The totIl movement OF all the roads
equaled 6.S34, O4S. 765 persons moved one
mile, at a charge of Sc cents per psssen.
ger per mile"
The average rates above given are not
obtained by subtracting from the system Of
of each commonwealth or
lection of country the heavier passenger
rafic in the most populous part of any
ystem, but is the average obtained by
.ealing with aggregates, just IS Mr.. Foote