The record-union., 1893-02-14
JUST THINK OF IT."
An Indignant Citizen Has Something
to Say.
The Leeds Amendment and the Pro-
ceedIngs Against the Rail-
road Commissioners.
The following communication will be
Yead with interest lust at this time:


point of any fair-minded gentleman, the
long-continued and vindictive assaults
upon the Railroad Commissioners are in
1amously mean and cowardly. Their in
dignant defiance of their assailants is
characteristic of sensitive and honor
is an honor to them and to
their constituents. That it lacks the
precision of the lawyer and the technical
ability of the railway expert, should not
prejudice their case. For of them it is no
compliment to say that they are all and
severally incomparably superior to the
imported expert who has taught the
Traffic Association what it knows about
Tailroading.
They relied and stood upon unimpeach-
able personal regulations and very inn
perfect presentation of their official rec
ord. As against conspiracy of trading
politicians and their Hessian manager
they could afford TO do so. But in law
ana fact they had and have a complete
and unanswerable Defense They de-
manded of the constituencies men who
were assalling them that they should file
. sworn complaint as prescribed by the
supreme and statute law Of the state.
lConst. Art. XII, Sec. y; Stat. 1851, Chap.
3d.
They could have shown that this is the
course OF procedure adopted by all the
Railway Commissions OF this and other
countries. 1t could be shown that in the
absence of such complaint, certified
copies of which must be served upon the
defendant railways, the Interstate Com
merce Commission has constantly and
resolutely refused TO entertain any case,
or 10 express any preliminary or e.C parte
opinion. First Annual Report, page lbs;
Fourth Annual Report, page lI3.)
In declining TO tfke official notice OF an
e. pG1te statemenp Judge Cooley said:
'It cannot always be known even that it
IS sent in good faith, much less that it is
probably based on good grounds" At
tempts to evade the rule by the cranks
who deny any and all rights to railway
companies have caused the National
Commission much trouble, and have FREE
quently been sharply rebuked. In this
case the shameless men who were daily
misrepresening and smIrching the
official conduct and integrity of the COM
mission refused, and boosted of their re-
tusal, to invoke its action in any capacity,
except that of a plotting conspirator
against one of the parties to all controYer-
sizes before it.
When those who do all the off-hand
clamoring againt the railway companies,
and are loudest in noisy accusations
against them, refuse to make case that
VIII put them to the proof, the ire
sIstlble presumption is that they are ly-
ing. This presumption is made vet
more conclusive by the fact that the false
accuser has choice OF remedies and of
loium Upon sworn complaint and
prayer for relief he may submit his case
10 the commission, or HtlLt0tiS HtlLtIRd{S:
he may take his case of extortion or dis
elimination to the courts which have
jurisdiction of actions sounding in dam
ages. Thus only tire wretch who is
nursing case of calamity can 60 amiss
1or relief or redress; and when the
Traffic Association refuses to risk a choice
nnI0 no ,.iS1 &c
too apparent for Doubt
But beyond all Prescriptions of law or
TACT, however conclusive against their
accusers, the Commissioners can show
from the records of their Office that
since 1883 there have been repeated and
radical reductions of fares and freights
by revision of schedules and change of
classlhcatiOns from higher to lower 1t
can be shown also that these changes
have been made and imposed
upon protesting companies. 1t can
be shown that since 1887 there has been
no fair presumption, much less proof.
of eXorbitant railway charges in this
state. Subject TO the long and short
haul clause contained in the Act of Con-
gress of that year, local schedules and
clasSltcatiOnS on all the overland roads of
the State have been thoroughly adjusted
10 through rates, and have gone steadily
down under the pressure of the same
competitive and controlling forces. AS
, there can be no greater charge for
short than for a longer haul on the same
road, i'll the same direction and subject
10 the same conditions, the constant and
inevitable reductions of through rates. to
meet competition by rival land and water
carriers, have required corresponding re-
ducnOns OF local charges. Thus it is that
in 1880 the Interstate Commerce Com
mission, referring to this relative reduc-
ton of local rates on some seventy diff
Of
ports that those made by the Southern
Pacific Company had been, up to that
date, from ten to ffty per cent. and some
times higher" Fourth Annual Report,
p. 22S.) 1t almost necessarily follows that
from and since the foregoing report the
same law and even more strenuous COM
petition have produced like results.
But striking as 1t is, the result is not
conhscation. The same laws of Congress
and of trade still dominate the situation.
They give to San Francisco her gate
money and the same through rates as in
terror terminals. They leave the rail-
ways subject to the pressure of through
upon local charges, 10 build up other dis
tributing points, and to supply them at
long-haul rates, minus the locals. Hence
the frantic attempt of the Traffic Asso-
citation to run its delivery wagon through
the Constitution and over the Railroad
Commission. Hence the INDIGENOUS con-
duet by which the san Francisco Bulletin,
the archangel of the Leeds apocalypse. is
spotting its robes of white. Hence its
vicious resolve TO brain the men who
have signed to il and don't play out the
season. When in its most violent moods
il is relief to hear it magnify the Call
and glorify itself.
1t puts into the CAL of the 18th instant,
and at the same time into the mouth of a
local merchant" among other rhapso-
dies, the following: Just think of it, a
California Legislature actually consider
ing seriously the retirement of the Rail-
road Commission : And a California
Legislature solemnly discussing the es-
Enlistment of local distance tariff and
classification Sheet! -
Just TO think OF 1t! Yes, just think of
RELOCATING the regulation OF railways
back TO the Legislature that spent two
successive sessions muddling the subject
and disgracing the State only at the end
of each to adopt and establish schedules
in force at its beginning, without chang
ing a single rate. Just TO think of put
ting into the Constitution distance
tariff, formulated, not by a Legislature,
but by commission, that, after years
consideration, two decisions and one re-
hearing, distinguished itself by rescind-
ing its first idiotic schedule. Just to
think of putting into the Constitution the
Western classification, that in 1856 con-
tanned 800 and in 1880 100 commodities,
an. increase of ], 900 in four years. just 10
think OF making this classification an
interchangeable part of the organic law,
and at the end of four years thousand
outlawed commodities, without a locus
Sfdndi in car, clipper or Constitution.
They would have the same legal stand
ing in the commercial world that the
oliicious Traffic Association would have
before the Board of Railroad commits
II.