, 1888-01-26

the return OF two million acres OF
railroad lands to the public domain
when he might have secured for
feiture of that much) and has been
much nursed by demagogues until
to abuse corporations became an ac
knOwledged passport 10 Office, and to
advocate conservative, liberal pol
icy meant to be branded as a railroad
"colIar-wearer," ''hirelIng," etc.
This anti corporation wave finally
eliminated in The election OF legisla-
tive members pledged to enact meas
ures hostile TO railroads. The gross
earnings law was speedily demnl-
ished, as per which was
quite right But now comes the
question OF enacting something bet
ter to take lis place. L this legisla-
ture succeeds in that It will have ac-
complished great good. Probably it
will retain the gross earnings feature
however. is applying to the property
III. actual daily use -by railroads
(Which was necessarily be taxed as a
whole, no matter how many counties
are traversed1; but all other property
owned by railroads can, and ought to
be, taxed as the property OF individ-
ualS Is taxed. But 4 measure inyolv-
ing important interests was intro
duceo by Councilman Sharpstein of
Walia Walia, and passed the council
prOmPtly-evidently in obedience to
what seemed to be popular demand.
Tins IS tue notable four-cent annie
bill, which also prescribes q low
freight tariff, so low that il would
amount to virtual prohibition on all
( new railroad enterprises IN the Ter
rItory. Here Is an instance of going
so far east that you get west. This
measure, If enacted, would be direct
! ~ IN the interest of monopoly, and
would please the n. 2. better than
anything else possibly could, be-
cause they conld take refuge behind
the Interstate commerce law, while
this bill would operate to prevent
and delay construction of rival local
lines that would divide their business
Ii might be properly styled bill TO
! prevent further railroad building in
the Territory. 1t won d probably Sc
cure to Walla WalIa and Whitman
counties relief from their oppressive
transportation rates. but while that
were being done the interests of
nine-tenths Of the Territory that have
no railroads could he sacrificed.
The writer therefore went before the
! House committee on corporations
yesterday, to whom was referred this
Sharpstein bill, and gave them an ar
gument against it-pointing out that
any law prescribing uniform rates
would be unjust For instance, it
would probably cost ten times as
much to construct a given number of
OF miles of road in the Puget Sound
basin as it would in eastern Wash
ington; to say that the heavier invest
ment should receive no higher COM
pensation than the other would be
rank injustice. MIR. Arasmith of
Whitman county, who IS urgent in
favor of the bill, inquired what sug
gestion we had to offer, to
which we replied that the
proper remedy seemed to lie in
the direction of railroad commission
clothed with power to regulate
freights and fares in accordance with
the amount of capital invested in any
given road, its expenses of operation
and the amount of its traffic. Tele-
grams are here from leading banks
and capitalists In New York and Bos-
ton. asking for copies OF all bills in
troduced on the subject of railroads,
showing not only that our Territory is
attracting wide attention as field
for investment of capital in railroad
enterprises, but that capital is timid
and can be easily scared out. Iu my
judgement the proper course to take
is one that would encourage the in
yestment of outside capital In new
lines of railroad that shall be rivals
of the old oues-and thus encourage
competition. The Puget Sound basin
cannot be developed by water trans
portation alone.
The writer hereof has drawn two
memorials that VIII doubtless pass,
viz: one asking for Notifications and
a naval station on Puget Sound, and
also for ten thousand dollars ap-
preparation for improving navigation
in Deception Pass.
NOTES.
| Capt Roeder, who has been SER
iously threatened with pneumonia, is
somewhat better today.
A bill was intro duced today TO di-
vide Stevens and create the county
of Okauogan.
From all indications a non-com-
pulsory pilot law will be enacted.
WEIR.