Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-04-26

always will be inharmonious with the
processes of commerce, and the laws of
trade.
The merchants of San Francisco who
sent up their petition recently against one
proposed phase of regulation, realized the
truth that competitive agencies in
separable from commerce best regulate
rates when they declared; "The contracts
referred to were freely entered into, our
action being based upon the broad and
general business principles which govern
trade and commerce We cannot think
the agitation of this question by the few
almost wholly disintereSted parties should
longer continue, but that it should be
raised above and kept entirely out of poll
tics The merchants have the broad and
open ocean before them, and can compel
the railroad companies to accept fair and
Just compensation for their services. The
benefits which flow from competition be-
tween the rail and water routes, in our
judgment, belong to and should be enjoyed
by the people of this coast, and any legisla-
ton which trammels either the operations
of the one or the other can only be detri-
mental to the interests of California"
The anti-railroad agitators have not
risen, or refuse to rise to the level of the
truth of facts They refuse to see that
despite the antagonistic influences by
which railroading has been surrounded in
California, rates have declined in obedi-
ence to the laws governing commerce, and
that this declination would have been
greater still, but for the fact that malig-
nant luminosity has retarded and impeded
natural processes, and by handicapping
capital has punished carrier, producer and
consumer alike-that is TO say, it is demon
strable from the undeniable statistics of
railroading in California that rates have
declined in exact proportion to the ability
of the country to support transportation
lines, and under the operation of water
competition land without rail competition,
and under the processes of trade that bid
for the maximum of traffic at the mini
mum of charge.
And vet, dating the natural declination
of rates from 1872 and to this hour, there
has been all the time carried on the most
gigantic system of railroad extension.
The formative state, in which a trade is
not fully developed, in which the cost is
out of proportion to the amount of bust
ness done and the populousness of the
section treated, has all this while been our
condition. California has not yet advanced
into that settled state wherein the factors
of volume of traffic, extent of develop
ment, production and consumption, the
cost of doing business, and the probable
return, can be estimated as fixed quantities.
The whole anti-railroad agitation has
this, and this only, outside Of mercenary
and selfish motives, for its basis-that rates
upon this coast have been falsely assumed
to be unreasonably higher than upon lines
at the East. The difference of conditions
is lost sight of or coolly ignored, and the
injustice of fat comparison of unequal
quantities is stubbOrnly insisted upon.
The figures upon which we base our al
legations have over and again been pub
lished, but are waived aside with a non
chalance the political demagogue alone can
assume. 1t is of no avail in argument
with the average anti-railroad maniac of
the present hour to point to the fact, for
instance, that while the roads of Massa-
chusetts, in given number of years
WHEREIN fair comparison of the volume
of tonnage can be made), carried, on the
average, COS, 1925 16 tons one mile at an
average rate of $50 7-lO, the Central Pa
cifc Railroad carried an average of 535,-
220000 tons one mile at 2:37 40. Thus,
the New England roads, with a greater
tonnage maintained higher average rate
than the California road with nearly a
million and half less of average annual
earnings, and at vastly greater cost for neces-
sary supplies. 1t is simply waste of time for
Mr.. Towne, in his report, to call the atten-
ton Of the political crusader to the fact
that the average passenger rate in Califor-
MIA declined from 26S in 1881 to $50 in
1882, and 229 in 1888, and that the freight
rate fell from PIC in 1881 to 181 in 1882.
1t is useless to recall the axiom, written
into political economy for a half century
that the interests Of the railroad and the
community are identical" for the political
spoiler of this day has sworn that they
shall be made antagonistic. But in this
he viii fail. Despite his malignancy, the
operation of immutabe laws will not
be stayed the prosperity of the one inter
est is so dependent upon the other, the
mutually is such, that the one cannot
suffer without the other taking harm. And
50 il will come to pass that restrictive legis-
lation seeking to control the operation of
natural laws, will bring upon itself the
righteous wrath of a deceived people, and
in the smoke of their nostrils and the fire
of their indignation, the shallow-brained
and loud-mouthed agitators of to-day, with
the political schemers and ambitious dema-
gogues of the hour, will be utterly con-
sumed
JUDICIAL DELAYS
1t has remained for one of the most emf
nent members of the bar to rise in con-
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