The record-union., 1893-03-03
Another Victory for the Ford Hy-
drauIic Mining Bill
CONTROLLERS LEGAL ADVICE.
The Worlds Fair Appropriation Discussed
Assenblyman johnson ExOnOrated in
a Majority Report

Fifty-two members OF the Assembly
yesterday voted in favor of the Godchaux
amendment, which by their own admis-
sion they do not understand. The
amendment lacked two votes of having
the two-thirds necessary for passage.
The amendment proposed the abolition
of the Railroad Commission, and also to
have inserted in the State Constitution a
mass of unintelligible figures designed to
regulate what railroad companies shall
charge for carrying freight and passen-
gers.
A substitute for the amendment, Of
fered by Mr.. Barlow, the San Luis Obispo
Populist, proposed that railroad compa-
MES shall not be permitted to make over
5 per cent. per annum, based on the
actual value of the railroads property.
Mr.. Schlesinger was the first Traffic
Association member to attack the substi-
tute. He hoped it would be voted down.
For more than twenty years. he claimed,
the Legislature and Railroad Commits
sions have failed to regulate the railroads.
The Godchaux amendment will afford
the desired relief. 1t makes reduction
panies of % per cent.
y ''RAw'' QUESTION.
Assemblyman Raw-Does this amend
ment, Mr.. Schlesinger, not affect all roads
earning over $4,000 per mile?
Mr.. Schlesinger-It does.
Mr.. Raw-And would it not be an in
justice to subject mountain roads, where
cost of operation is necessarily heavy, to
the same rates which valley roads may
charge under this proposed Traffic Asso-
citation amendment?
Mr.. Schlesinger-It might work a
slight injury to some, but don't care to
speak on that question.
Mr.. Schlesinger was forced to admit his
inability to satisfactorily answer the
question. He closed his speech by eulogiz-
ing Leeds, the man who is too busy in the
East to look after his bills in California.
Mr.. Nann followed. "What is there
unfair or unjust in the Barlow substi-
tute," he asked. Every body knows who
has common sense that it costs more to
operate roads in the mountains than in
the valleys. 1t seems to me the way the
Godchaux amendment is framed that a
-
if it should become law, which do not
believe 1t will. The Barlow substitute
guarantees railroad companies s per
cent. on their investment. Its provisions
will not drive out capital, as will the
5odchaux amendment, but will make the
railroads come down in their charges and
yet not starve out the small roads. The
substitute will not discriminate in favor
of any road, but give justice to all. If the
assessed valuation of roads is not the
proper basis on which to fix freights and
1ares, then l do not know what is. A lit
tie road in my county
WOULD HAVE TO CEASE OPERATIONS,
it was limited as the Godchaux amend
ment proposes. The Barlow substitute
bears the imprint of equal rights to all
and special privileges to none"
Mr.. Adams also spoke in favor of the
substitute. If the Traffic Association
schedule of freights and fares was en-
grated in the Constitution it would be
permanent. He read from the report of
the Senate Committee, which considered
the amendment. showing the schedule
would be unfair and unjust to the small
roads in the State. Are we willing to
clog the wheels of progress by enactjnp
such an amendment?" asked Mr.. BEN
nett. He said the members of the As
sembly were not pledged to support the
amendment of Godchaux in its present
form, and to substantiate his statement
he read the pledge which the mem bers of
the Assembly bound themselves to.
Mr.. O'lAeefe said he was free to eXer-
else his own judgment, and was opposed
10 the Traffic Association measure. He
did not believe the amendment to be law
ful, and would not place himself on rec
ord as in favor of embracing in the Con-
stitution conglomeration of figures
which only the author could understand.
Mr.. Wade did not believe the s per cent.
allowed under the Barlow substitute
would pay the railroads interest on its
bonded Indebtedness and leave enough
for operating expenses.
BOTH UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
II was Mr.. Finlayson's opinion that
both the GodchauX amendment aud the
Barlow substitute are in violation of the
Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal
Constitution. The railroad companies. he
averred, could raise their assessed yalua-
ton so as to make more than they are
now earning under the Barlow per cent.
provision.
Mr.. Bennett, the Orange County Popu-
list, believed the substitute offered a
feasible, tangible solution of the railroad
question. He said that never in any
legislative body in the country was such
a Just measure ever proposed to regulate
freights and fares to be charged by rail
road companies.
Mr.. Kennedy opposed the substitute
and spoke for the original amendment.
II am willing to admit / know nothing
about the schedule proposed, but L am
willing to take the judgment OF the formu-
lators of this amendment-men who have
spent the best years of their life in study,
ing this transportation question" he said
He claimed there were only four roads IL
the State which earn over $4,000 per mile