Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-07
TUESDAY. JANUARY I, 1890.
A Word of Friendly Advice TO Our
Railroads.


When the round-trip ticket to all
points on the Missouri river was placed
ct 500, the travel to California became
greater than ever it had been before or
since. All parts of the State had the
benefit of this travel, and Southern Cali
fornia took q jump forward which ma
terislly added to her population and
prosperity. The railroad companies, we
were told at the time, found that the re-
duced rates with increased traffic paid
much better than high rates with paucity
of business. They not only gave the
itinerant public the benefit of the reduc-
ton, but they were liberal to excursion
agents, immigration agents and all sorts
of agencies for steering the tourist, the
home-seeker and pleasure hunter to this
coast. To an ordinary business compre-
hension the success Of the reduction in
increasing the traffic twenty-fold proved
the wisdom of the new policy. 1t made
the roads pay, increased the population
of the coast, placed its exhaustless re-
sources upon the plane of greater devel-
opment, Infused new life and activity
into commerce and production, increased
real values, and was generally produc-
tive of benefit to all classes and all in
terests.
But in an evil hour for all par
ties, the railroad authorities returned
/. to their former fallacious policy. They
said that If the public will stand $50 for
. ticket, they will not ''kick" at trifling
raise, and put up the price to $50. But
the public has not responded. The $40
raise was considered by them as an item
of interest, and they fell off very
markedly in their patronage.
Whilst the lines to California adopted
this new and injurious policy, the rail-
roads of the East did not fail to take ad-
vantage of it. Under the low rate of
fare, the tourists and pleasure.seekers
who had before made Florida their win
ter Mecca, turned their backs
upon the Everglades, and swarmed
to Southern California. But as soon as
the rate of fare was raised to California,
the Eastern roads at once to ok advan-
tage of the situation, and made very
material reduction in the round trip rate
to Florida. By this means they won
back the winter pleasure seekers, who
had found in California a better climate
and more attractive scenery, to the lately
abandoned hostelries of the State where
swamps abound and the alligator is
abroad in the land.
We would like to put plain fact be-
fore the understanding of the railroad
people who are interested in increasing
the business of their roads to this
State, and ask them if they have not
tried the high-rate plan long enough now
to show them that it don't pay nearly as
well as the low rate 1t is not alone in
the amount of falling off in itinerant traf- |
fic that the railroads are injured, but
they are weakening the capacity of the |
State to give them as ample profits as
they could secure by the prosperity that
attends every community that is rapidly
adding to it's population and thus increas-
ing its wealth.
With cheap overland fares California
will settle up rapidly; but if the fare is
kept at it's present high figure the pro-
cess will be slow. Under the former
policy We will add to our population in
two years what it would take six years to
secure with high rates.
We believe that the overland COM
panies would consult their own best in
terests by returning to the low rate. We
know they would greatly benefit the
State by doing go. This is good time,
at the beginning of the year, for them to
reconsider their passenger tariff, and re-
store the rates to the figure that proved
so talismanic five years ago in producing
an era of unexampled prosperity.