Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-29
GROWING st THE RAILROAD COM
PANY

PANY.
Europeans say that the American
tra-s!er IS often the most exacting and I'M
reasonable man in the world. We shall
begin to think that the European judg-
ment is sound in that respect. Here we
nave growls and grumbling statements
from q few passengers detained at Truckee,
ana aimed against the Southern Pacific
Company. The sum of their charges is
and, by the way, but three men out of
seventy sign the document-that they
have suffered some inconvenience at True
kee by being detained there by unavoida-
bic accident; that few passengers have
been suffering with colds, that one was
taken with diphtheria and died in hotel,
and that some others are out of money.
Passengers on steamers and by rail not in
frequently die; it will be new code of
responsible for such misfortunes where no
neglect of the carrier enters into the
matter. Passengers who buy ticket for
transportation bargain for carriage only,
and if they are detained by unavoidable
accident, there is no obligation on the part
OF the carrier to supply them with money,
physicians or with food or shelter. 1t is
the hight of absurdity to growl at the
carrier for a situation he did not bring on,
and that he could not have prevented.
Here we have silly complaint from
physician who was taken sick on delayed
train, and the idea seems to be thrown out
chat inhumanity was shown because the
train men had not an apothecary-shop at
hand to supply the needed drugs. This
same doctor is full of complaining against
the company because of the price of food
that passengers saw fl: to purchase in pre-
ference to accepting the free checks given
out by the railroad people for good meals
at hotels at stations where the trains
we're delayed. Probably the company is
TO blame for not regulating the trade of
the people having provisions to sell. Pos
sibly there may be known some method of
requiring man to part with his property
at less than his own price, and probably
these railroad officials have power in that
matter which the sovereign State cannot
exercise.
The truth is, however, that the GROWERS
and complainants have been few compared
to the whole number of passengers incom-
moded by act of nature. AS we have al
ready said, human nature would be what
we would like it to be, and not what it is,
If there were not in every large body of
men some who find fault, no matter what
The circumstances. When we consider
That several hundred passengers have for
long time been delayed on their course by
STOW blockades; that at one time in one
place food ran short for few hours; that
many of the passengers were not provided
with money for the expenses of long de-
lay; that there were some unequal to the
rare air of the high attitudes and the Sc
verify of the unusual weather, it is not at
all surprising that there was some suffer
ing, some sickness, some grumbling and a
good deal of discomfort
But what is surprising is that the snow
bound Jared so we'll Had they been pas
sengers by water and have been cast away,
would they have expected the steamship
owners to have provided for them as have
She railroad people for the delayed passen-
gers recently? Was there ever before
more surprising and generous record than
that made by the Southern Pacific Com
pany in this whole business? We think
not. Let it be looked at fairly, in the
calm of reason, and the verdict of nom
approval is not possible. The company
ordered every complaint investigated and
any possible neglect by employees recti-
fed 1t furnished the passengers with the
best food attainable at the points where
the trains were delayed, or that could be
packed in to them. They permitted all
who desired where the accommodations
served, to leave the cars and take their
meals at the hotels at the company's ex
pense. They sent special agents of relia-
bility and experience to visit the trains
and see that no man or woman suffered for
lack ordinary comforts. They went, in
deed, to the extreme limit of generosity
without single legal obligation to do so,
and they moved the trains as rapidly as it
was possible to do. There were found men
on these trains who knew, of course, that
they could have handled them great deal
better. That always happens. The man
is ever present who can conduct the affairs
of another better than the one most inter
ested.
All sensible people know that railroad
ing on single track can be carried on only
by the "order" system; these orders must
emanate from central office of authority,
where the whole situation is reported mo-
mentarily, and where the actual condition
of the track is known and the capacity Of
side-tracks and passage-ways clearly under
stood For instance, some of the passen-
gers who were detained at Blue Canyon
and Shady Run sent up growl that their
train ought to have been pushed on close
behind the snowplow, failed to consider
. that thereby they would have taken the