The morning call., 1891-12-14
WILL WONDERS EVER cEAsEe

Who will say we are not making progress
in the direction of obtaining better treat
ment from the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company after reading the following re-
marks of our friend Pixley. which are taken
from the last number of the ArgOndHt:
Do The people of California, and more particu-
laIly the merchants and business men OF San
Francisco, want cheaper rates Of freight from
tie Eastern States or DO they not? II they do.
as We may assume, why do they not make some
effort 10 secure them? They may be certain that
The railroad companies composing the Transcon-
uneDtal Association will never make voluntary
reduction in rates, and, in fact they would be
very foolish TO do so, so long as they can charge
their own prices and find community weak
enough 10 pay them without demur or remon
STRANGE. SO long as the people OF this State make
no move In their own behalf, so long the railroad
companies viii remain masters OF the situation
Jupiter helps only those who help themselves.
Tie railroad companies have seduously cult
waited The impression that the only way to get
freight from New York or any Eastern port to
San Francisco is across the continent. To In
tenslfy this impression they have subsidized the
Pacific Aall Steamship Company, which other
wise might be a competitor, and pay IL large
sum annually not 10 carry freight. The railroad
combination actually pays the steamship COM
pany thousands OF dollars to keep a certain
amount OF space on its steamers empty rather
than to allow freight to be carried at rates which
would al once expose The extortion which they
Ghe railroad cOmpanies) practice on the people
O! California.
But however much these companies may sub
sidiZe the Pacific Mail, and In spite OF all their
arguments in favor of land transportation, they
cannot conceal the fact that the great ocean
highway still remains open, and that mercban-
disc can be transported between the ports OF
New York and San Francisco by route which
no monopoly can control. In order to avoid dis
cussion of this question they seek TO divert pub
lie attention by qualified approvals OF the Mica
ragua Canal scheme and by comparisons drawn
between the time required for an ocean voyage
and the time made by the fast railway trains
across the continent, but they very carefully
eyade giving the figures either Of railway time
for ordinary freight or OF cost Of transportation.
Who would have thought one or two years
ago that Mr.. PiXley would have written aud
published such an article as the one quoted
above? THE CALL has published as much
over and over again, and long before move
ment was made even by cur business men.
1t showed the wrongs which our citizens
were patiently enduring from Il corporation
which has been treated with liberaIity
unparalleled heretofore in the history of the
United States. Money enough was given to
four men to build the entire road system of
California and leave each one of them prob
ably with private fortune Of from thirty to
fifty millions of dollars. To have these men
squeeze every industrial interestin Califor-
Mia TO obtain more money seemed strange,
but when they in company with other in
teress subsidized the Pacific Mail Steamship
COMPANY, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe Railroad Company, the Northern Pacific
Railroad Company, and even a foreign
company-the Canadian Pacific Railroad
-to -
be exaeting entirely too much; but the ques-
tion which naturally suggested itself to the
railroad managers was, Can the Inhabitants
Of San Francisco and California help them
selves? The commerce and products Of
California have been taxed almost past en-
durance to make few men altogether too
rich for the good of the State and the cOun-
try at large. but the pound of flesh, never
theless, must come. We are pleased to see
that MI Plxley realizes that Jupiter helps
those who help themselves" for the busi-
ness men and producers of the State are
now moving and trying to help themselves.
The Southern Pacific Railroad Company
is not willing 10 pay even its proper
proportion of taxes, for 1t usually has
enough of its creatures in Office to shuttle
along and assist in avoiding them. Again,
Friend Pixley has not gone very deeply into
the enlightenment OF the public on the sub
sidy business. He might have added that
the company has owned and largely subsi-
died newspapers for the purpose of de-
ceiving the public as to It's aims and objects
We would like to have Mr.. PixleY write a
chapter on this subject. which The CALL
would willingly publish. Then why should
not our neighbor try to elucidate more
abstruse topic and tell us how the railroad
company has subsidized numbers Of men
who have run the politics OF the city and
State. now giving a gratuity to one boss
and then to ;aother? 1t would probably
be no stretch OF the imagination to say that
these men have had large gratuities be-
slowed upon them in order that persons
might be sent to the Legislature who would
vote friendly candidates into the United
States Senate, and to exempt the railroad COM