Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-14
THE INTERSTATE CoMmERcE BILL.

When Senator Stanford declared in hi
place in the Senate, that the passage o.
the interstate commerce bill would result
IN commercial disaster, he spoke as a states
man, Senator of the United States, bear
ing in view the full import of his words
and fully conscious of his obligations as a
legislator. These were fortified by his
broad experience as railroad man. It is
not, therefore, to be passed by lightly
The expression was one made with due
deliberation, aud its solemnity ought to
have special weight with the thoughtful
The bill has passed the Senate. Should II
become law the school of experience will
speedily determine whether Senator Stan
ford's foresight is at fault. The short
haul clause of the bill is the most OBJ
jectionable one. 1t is believed that it viii
have one of two effects, to reduce rates on
interstate local traffic to a non-paying
basis, and on which fixed charges cannot
be met. or TO raise through or long haul
rates to such plane that business will
be driven to carrier lines, over which the
bill exercisesno jurisdiction, or else shut out
the West from the East markets. Senator
Palmer, in discussing the amendment of
Mr.. Camden, to strike from the fourth sec
ton prohibiting 4 greater charge for a
shorter than a longer distance over the
same line, the words "aud from the same
original point of departure" declared that
such elimination would be unfair both to
the railroads and to the people, as it would
discriminate against home railroads, in
favor OF foreign corporations, and he gave
Illustrations of this truth. The amend
ment of Mr.. Camden prevailed in Com.
mittee Of the Whole, but on motion Of
Mr.. Edmunds in the Senate the words
were restored and these were added. cor
to the same point of arrival" He de-
clared that his motive was to prevent dis
examination against the farmers distant
from markets, and Mr. Teller defended the
long haul low rates as Indispensable to the
prosperity, not only of the West, but of
E the East Seventy-two per cent. of our
exports, he declared, are the products of
forest and farm. Instead of seeking
dearer, we should seek cheaper rates of
freight from the West. The effect of the
''hlii, even thus modified, still appears to us
to be to give the trade and commerce of
points where ocean and other competition
does not play part, the same advantages
as to rates that are enjoyed by commerce
and trade at terminal points, by reason of
competition. There is a saving clause,
that the Commission to he appointed is to
nave the power to exempt carriers from
the operations of the section when it Shall
appear to it that it is right and Just to do
so. Fhis exception confesses the in
applicability of the principle sought to be
established, as a rule, and it invests in the
Commissioners such powers as no man has
ever been privileged to exercise. In this
connection our contemporary, the San
Francisco Bulletin, falls into an error
scarcely pardonable, in the light of the
dis2a;ohes. published. The Camden amend
ment was not finally adopted by the Sen
ate, as orr contemporary states; bad as
the bill is, it was saved from that utterly
rulnous clause. 1t did not provide that
there shall be no greater charge for a short
haul than for long one for traffic from
the same point of departure, but quite the
contrary, since it proposed, as we have
shown already, to prohibit any greater
charge for short haul than for long one
IN tue same direction over the same line.