Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-08
EXTREMISTS SUFFER.


is charged, not so much to the saloon infu-
ence as to the Sunday law issue, and the
belief that he favored a crusade against all
sorts of activity on Sunday, even to the
stopping of the delivery of milk on that
day. Assuming this TO be correct state
ment, it is proof that the extremist often
defeats himself. Radical suasion in the
interest of good morals is not objected
to by the people, but the attempt to
legislate radicalism on the Sunday ques
ton into the people, oftener than not,
suffers defeat. In Iowa it is said that the
defeat of the Republican party is to be
attributed largely to the extreme views Of
the Republican candidate concerning anti
railroad legislation, and the irritation that
has followed the strict enforcement of the
railroad laws This is a very significant
statement. If sound, and we have no
reason to believe 1t to be otherwise, 1t proves
that the day has passed when the anti
railroad hobby is strong enough to carry a
politician into Office The people are not
antagonistic to the railroad interests of the
country They have fully awakened to
the force of the truth that the interests of
the producer and the carrier are common;
that the first cannot be unjustly burdened
without the latter dividing the punish
ment with it. The railroads are conserv-
ators of industry, the greatest aids to COM
merce, the supreme means of eliminating
distance and time between the field and
the market; and hence the people are no
longer disposed in any section of the
United States to inhict injury upon them
selves by the attempt to overburden the
means of carriage and communication.
Here and there are found instances in
which preacher of railroad crusade har
rangues limited audience, but at large
the American people are resorting to
the laws of trade and the correc-
tive of publicity for the adjustment
of any misunderstanding they have with
carrier interests. In Iowa the anti-rail-
road sentiment assumed the phase of great
bitterness and of declared hostility to the
prosperity of carrier interests. Last year
the Governor, by message, assailed the
roads and charged against them all man.
ner of cruelty, oppression and outrage, all
of which they denied hotly. The Legis-
lature took up the refrain, and a cloud of
radical, unjust and oppressive measures
appeared in the Houses. The most of
these bills failed to pass, cooler heads than
had promoted them prevailing; but there
were nevertheless passed many bills that
cripple the roads and correspondingly bur-
den and Cypress the commerce of the State
and the industries that must support
lie roads. At the close of the year Iowa
was distinguished as having still upon her
statute books the most oppressive railroad
laws of any State in the Union. The rates
established by the law that went into eff
feet in May Of that year were 20 per cent.
DelOW IuOSe IudI Hdu ODldlHeu, anu were
of course bitterly denounced by the rail-
road companies, which appealed to the
Courts, and injunctions were granted and
hearings had with varying results, the
position of the roads being that the rates
were ruinously low, and that therefore
property was really being confscated. APP
peals were taken to the Supreme Court,
and in the meantime dormant section of
the anti.railroad Act was drawn to light
giving the Railroad Commissioners extra
ordinary powers in fixing rates after COM
plant made. This still further involved
matters Just what the outcome of all the
litigation and crusading has been cannot
now be recited but the result to the party
that upheld a candidate that was radically
opposed to the roads is found in the recent
election. The prohibition question had
something to do with the result, it is
true, but it appears to be conceded that
the chief cause Of Republican defeat in
Iowa was the radical attitude of its candi-
dates in antagonism to the railroads that
were complaining of the injustice, harsh
ness and ruinous exactions of the State
laws, aimed against the lines within State
Jurisdiction.