Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-15
THE ATTEMPT TO RESURRECT THE
RAILROAD QUESTION.

No more brilliant example of the folly
that makes men mad, is of recent date
than that to be noted in the case of that
journalistic Ishmael, the San Francisco
Chronicle. 1t possesses the art in the high
est degree of raising tempest in a teapot.
Having successfully elected O'Donneli
Coroner of San Francisco by its opposition
to and abuse of him; having successfully
defeated Jacobs, its underling, for County
Clerk by its support of him; having lux
uriated in the rebukes of the people, and
the cuttings of the Republican party, and
had its reverse side kicked by self-respect-
ing voters, it is now engaged in the con-
genial task of clearing a battlefield for it
self in which it proposes to do giant and
valorous deeds to win back the plaudits of
disguised auditory
To this end it seeks to drag into the polit-
ical arena, by the head and ears, the
bleeding anti-railroad carcass. \ more
stupendous illusion blinds it to its own
ridiculous attitude than that which de
ceived the vain NoJlrjahad, and enabled
Schemzeddin to teach him the folly of I'M
holy ambition. and unlawful desire The
Chronicle, in its senile efforts to remain sen
sational, has, in reality, entered upon the
unSubstantial conflict that is involved in
fighting It's own shadow. This model Of
Inconsistency evidently proceeds upon the
system described by Macaulay in which
the two great commandments are to hate
your neighbor and TO love your neighbours
wife. Which gives point 70 the application
of the cpigram of Tacitus that it is human
to hate those whom we have injured.
The attempt of the Chronicle to revivify
the ant-railroad corpse is little short Of
criminal For years its chief complaint
was that the railroad corporations would
not keep out of politics. To this il was re
piled that whenever the railroad companies
were engaged in political contests they were
driven 10 in self-defense-a truism, since it
is evident that self-interest must prompt a
business so dependent upon the mainten-
ance of congenial relations with the PEG
pie. to avoid all possible conflicts with them
and all causes for irritation. 1t has always
been the game of unscrupulous men to
hold the political lash above the railroad
back, and 10 use any means, howeverycnal,
to force the corporations to secure their
friendship or avert their cnmity. We as
serl without fear of successful contradic-
ton, that the railroad companies Of this
coast have for many years been the victims
Of stupendous system of political black
mail
Tie new effort of the San Francisco
Chronicle to rcsurrcct and drag the railroad
question into the political atmosphere is
about as timely as would be the introduce
non of corpse at a wedding feast 1t does
not seem to have sufficcd that railroad
officials long ago made open declaration of
their fixed determination to have nothing
more to do with politics, come what may.
It does not, apparently, suffice that il is still
teratcd that they maintain that position,
and are resolved not to he driven
into political contests 1t docs not
seem to have sutficed that this declaration
of faith has been made good by works, and
that the political harpies have been stood
OF, to use vulgarism, with a courage, the
mcttlc of which the general public can
have small conception, until it reflects
upon tie ten thousand means resorted to
by greedy horlcs and the unscrupulously
ambitious, to coerce corporate interests and
compel them to bleed or be knitted
The Ereaiag Post of San Francisco puts it
pat when it says
The fact is that the railroads have no further
occasion to participate actively in political con
tests The time when the protection of their
own interests required such participation has
gone by. Recent elections have shown that the
people feel friendly towards them, and that the
aati-corporation hGwlerS, rs represented by the
extra-session advocates and the Stockton Con-
vention, have quietly taken themselves to their
holes. with the humiliating consciousness that
they have been repudiated by the people. In
the Senatorial issue the railroad people express
themselves as well satisfied that they would re-
ccive just and honorable treatment at the hands
of either of the candidates. and they ask no
more.
The San Francisco Chronicles present at
tempt to connect the railroad corporations
with new political contests, is simply an
effort TO bolster up its own failing influence
as counsellor in the Republican party.
BY the emphasis of a political revolution
the people of California have declared that
they have had enough of the insane anti
railroad warfare. On their part the railroad
! corporations have signifed their withdrawal
from political fields, and their willingness
to take whatever punishment may follow.
And now comes the sheet in question in
the vain attempt 10 lay on the lash. Hap