The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-07-12
REGULATION OF
TRANSPORTATION RATES AND
RAILROAD POLITICS.


The present Constitution of California
was submitted to the people of this State
for their ratification in May, 1872 Per-
haps no feature of the instrument at
tracted more widespread attention or
ELECTED more discussion than that which
created and defined the powers of a Rail-
way Commission. The particular part of
the Constitution referred to is Section .,
Article XII. The provision places the
subject of regulating the rates of trans
portation absolutely in the hands of
commission.
The genesis of this article may be
briefly given. The railroad era of Cali
fornia began in 1870. 1t supplanted The
ox-team for freight and the stage-coaeh
for passengers. 1t supervened upon an
era of very high cost of transportation
both by sea and land. 1t wrought many
radical commercial and industrial
changes. It broke down the overshadow
ing supremacy Of San Francisco. 1t for
bid forever the cornering of goods, and
the mercantile expressions of which that
city had been guilty in all time. Not
withstanding the rates by rail were per-
haps not one-tenth of those obtaining by
means of transportation which the rail
supplanted, there arose at once clamor
for legislative regulation. There was dis
content among shippers, but the demand
for legislative regulation Of rates was not
chiefly from that source. The professional
politician, the legislative blackmailer, the
place-hunter. the demagogue, all united
at most vital point. Legislative regula-
ton was failure just as it will be in the
future. Members Of the Legislature
could not agree among themselves as to
regulative measures. No schedule of
transportation can be enacted in sixty,
eighty or 100 days by legislative body,
and no schedule can be agreed upon by
reason of the diversity of interests in
volved.
Some crude attempts at legislative regu-
lation were, indeed, made. Looking back
upon the period with that maturity of
thought which time and experience con-
fer, the people of California can now see
that the Freeman bill and the Irwin bill
were the crude efforts of men who had
not mastered the primitive problems of
transportation. They were the work Of
novices who possessed that little learning
which has been said to be a dangerous
thing. The rates of transportation al
lowed by them would appear at the pres
ent time ridiculously high, and yet the
people at the time imagined that these
enactments were in the interest of the
shipper. Before another session of the
Legislature assembled rates had de-
scended below the scale proposed to be
enacted into law. Out of an abundant
experience in attempts at legislative regu-
lation the Constitutional Convention de-
yised Section %, Article XII.
There are those to-day who declare that
the railroads themselves were response
BILE for that article. This is simply an
untruth. The most important modi-
fication of the arbitrary powers con-
ferredssupon the commission by the
Constitution were secured by the
railroad. A prominent attorney, who
was member of the convention, intro
dueed at the conclusion of the sentence
enumerating the powers of the commits
sion, the words, 'and enforce their de-
cisions and correct abuses through the
medium Of the courts" But for these
words the Railway Commission would
have been an executive, legislative and
judicial tribunal. The railroads of the
State opposed strenuously the adoption of
the new Constitution. This is lust as
much matter of history as the discoy-
cry of America, the Declaration of INDIE
pendence, or any other historical fact,
which is accepted as fact by the consensus
of evidence and the consent of common
intelligence. The provision declared that
the behests of the Railway Commission
should be so sacred that any officer or
agent or employe of any corporation who
should demand or receive rates in excess
of. those fixed by the commission should
nav fine of $1,000. But the browning
infamy of the section is found in the
words: SIN all controversies, civil or
criminal, the rates of fare and freight es-
tablished by said commission shall be
deemed conclusive, just and reasonable"