The record-union., 1892-11-01
A FARMER'S VOICE.
It is Raised Against the Enemies Of
the Inferior.
a Representative Producer Speaks His
Mind Openly on the Railroad
and Other Questions.

EDS. RECoRE-UNIoN The Traffic AS
sociauon and the B,,Iictin Of san Fran
cisco are sending out to us in the coun-
try, asking US 10 support a scheme to turn
over the railroad question to the Legis-
lature.
Now, sirs, I am neither friend nor foe
of the railroad; | have no favors to ac-
knowledge no fears to entertain. | do
not hesitate 10 say that the people could
not do worse thing than 10 reintroduce
railroad freights and fares into the Lcgis-
lature.
We have lad one dose Of that, and all
producers and all business ulen know the
result. / tell you what You know, that
legislative regulation Of such a shifting
and varying business as rate and fare
making is impossible.
We want the railroad kept out of poll
ties; to adopt the Bulletins plan We'll
drag it in. The Railroad Commission
may not have done all we expected Of it:
but it was never intended that it should
be all the time stirring up contention
Take it all around it has done we'll to do
little, and let the railroad and The pro-
ducers settle things between themselves,
When | was in the East last year I gave
good deal Of attention to railroads, and
i say that, all things considered, we are
rs well oil as the people in the West as to
fares and frcights and accommodations.
We must consider density Of population,
volume ot business and the cost of keep
ing Il road up in our great stretches where
there IS no income practically.
/ say L observed and inquired, and |
became convinced that we have not so
much to complain of as the BU{{eiR
would have us believe. | ind wages
here on the railroads are higher all along
the whole line than the roads pay in the
East; | find the cost of construction was
great deal more on our roads than on
any in the East.
Then they at the East have cheap fuel,
coal right along the track everywhere,
and it is greatly cheaper than here. They
have a system of coal mining there by
use of compressed air and other devices
that reduces the cost of coal to as low as
81 a ton delivered to the locomotive. We
all know what it costs here.
As farmer / have never known the
California railroads to refuse to hear
any complaint, and l know that if pro-
ducers go to the roads with complaints
having in them justice, they will lie able
to adjust all troubles. 1t ought tu be seen
by everyone that the interest of the rail-
road company is to know of all wrong
done in its name. 1t wants all the indus
tries that can exist here-we know that.
and, therefore, if the railroad was
stripped of all restraint, selt-interest
would induce it to cultivate the produc-
ing interests.
Carrier and producer interests are COM
mon; this san Francisco business is
seeking to make people believe that these
two interests are at war. | affirm that
they are not. There are cases where there
is wrong, and sometimes it is not easily
or at once adjusted, but | know as an old
Californian and a producer that if we
will, we farmers can have justice done Us
by railroads without going to Legisla-
lures or Railroad Commissions.
san Francisco was all right, and all was
lovely when she had no competition and
everything came in by water, and we
had to take supplies at her prices. Now
we can buy Independent Of her, and that
is the cause of her growl and her desire
to get her tools into the Legislature at the
cost of the people, to cinch the railroads
and bleed them.
/ think the commission should remain.
for whatever may be said it is tribunal
where we can complain if we do not
choose TO go TO the railroads.
And. again, ! hope the people will vote
down the hundred days idea for the
Legislature. Sixty days are plenty in
which to do all that ought to be DONE If
one hundred days are given they will be
simply consumed as have been the sixty
days in the past. z. CARROLL.
Nicolaus, October 81, 1892.