The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-04-08
THE SUPPOSED ANTAGONIST OF
COUNTRY AND METROPOLIS.

SO1GoSEp ANIACoNISM OF
COUNTRY AND METROPOLIS.
The San Francisco Bulletin labors in a
second article in its issue of Wednesday
to explain that there is nothing in the
Fresno case" referred to in these col
umns as disclosing the real claim of San
Francisco that all the interior by pro-
hibitive rates on incoming merchandise
from the East for interior points should
be compelled to buy in San Francisco.
Our contemporary nowhere in its lengthy
and labored reply makes any denial of
the charge preferred. In fact, it is sig
nificant that its truth is tacitly admitted
by evasion, and by the attempt to make
it appear that the Southern Pacific Com
pany is diligently engaged in stirring up
strife and in impressing the people with a
belief that there is an irrepressible con-
hict between the metropolis and the in
terror.
1t may be assumed that the railway
transporters are fairly sagacious business
men, and that as such they would not
commit themselves to a policy to deliber-
ately cripple their own interests, which lie
in the conservation of the productive and
commercial prosperity of city and coun-
try alike. 1t is impossible to conceive of
sane business men committing the folly Of
working the injury of either of the bust
ness interests referred to, when their own
prosperity is dependent upon the adj
vancement and full development of both.
When. therefore. the San Francisco
newspaper press AYERS that transporta-
ton buiness is deliberately engaged in
cultiVating an antagonism between Sec
tons which can only result in harm to
1t as the carrier between these sections, it
talks folly, ana gives small credit to the
reading public Tor intelligence
Now, as matter of fact, there is no
natural antagonism between the Califor-
MIA metropolis and the interior of the
State. Whatever there is of artificial fric-
ton is due to the narrowness of the policy
of the San Francisco business element.
We can successfully challenge the cita-
ton of single fact indicative Of enmity
on the part of the interior tow ards San
francisco, or of any act or expression
that can be tortured into the suggestion
OF a desire to cripple the growth of that
city or prevent the attainment of its high
est possibilities.
San Francisco, in other words. has
drawn for herself so limited horizon of
view Of the commercial field of great
city that she has been the cause most
largely Of her own suffering. When new
conditions of development of States north
and east of US, and the establishment of
new lines of transportation that cut off
from her the trade once wholly hers. be-
gan to affect her commerce, she did not do
as have all other cities Of like important
situation under like circumstances
broaden the horizon of her view and
reach out to new fields and battle for
trade with giants of commerce. On the
contrary, she contented herself with
mere retailing and an effort to maintain
her metropolitan character by leyyiug
tribute upon the local trade area. Losing
by natural processes the trade of the
northwest, the south and the trans
montana sections, San Francisco has
sought to recover by dependence upon
the trade of the interior. To that end
she objected early by secret, and sub
sequently by open protest against
the natural right of interior terminal
points to buy of first hands, and insisted
that San francisco being natural dis
tributing center, as matter of preroga-
tive right should be the sole and only
depot of supply for the State.
Stripped of its DISCUSSES that is the COM
plant Of the metropolis to-day. The at
titude of the interior is unchanged; it is
to-day what it has been from the begin
ming; it is not antagonistic to San Fran
cisco. nor is it in conflict with her to
any greater extent than the natural de-
tense of inalienable right from assault in
wolves.
When San Francisco gets up and out of
the rut of provincialism: when it ceases
TO scratch in the earth with a muck rake.
when its merchant interest, following
the example of Melbourne, Marseilles.
Hamburg, Liverpool, and other great
traffic and commercial world centers
lifts its eyes to what is above and about
it in trade possibilities, and reaches ont
in the strength and vigor of independ
ency, it viii attain the position of import-
ance such magnificent seaport should
occupy, and viii cease to be Jealous of
mercantile advantages enjoyed by in
terror terminal points, the prosperity of
which viii add to the wealth and import
ance of San Francisco.
All this present artificial and unnat-
ural complaint about rates to the interior
from San Francisco, the deprivation of
that city of its right to supply the
country; its injury by reason of the sup
plies the lesser cities draw from other
sources, is cruelly and humiliatingly, little
and humanity. 1t presents California's
metropolis to the world to-day as
whining commercial imbecile; it inyokes
for it the contempt of the true merchant
class, which has thought above the pop
corn stand or the pound package trans
actions of crossroads grocery store. 1t