The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-15
A PIrIFUL CASE.

The average anti-railroad agitator is in
capable of dealing fairly with questions
affecting the vital interests of producers,
and the carriers of their products. This
truth was made prominently manifest on
Monday evening before the Senate Com
mittee having the Leeds constitutional
amendment proposition under examina-
ton. Mr.. Barry, who represented the
prepayment of that proposition, attempted
to treat the railway rate question upon
the plane of generalization, and thus ex-
posed his entire ignorance of the facts re-
lating TO the issue and his incompetency
to deal with the underlying principles of
transportation.
His ignorance of the subject was made
grotesque when, among other exhibit
tons of it, he declared with emphasis that
the State OF Texas had never set up a
Board of Railroad Commissioners. Even
his hedging under the declaration that
his knowledge did not compass any in
formation that such board had been es-
'tablished, did not save him from occupy
ing a ludicrous position.
Yet this gentleman, put forward to give
reasons for injection into the State Con-
stitution of voluminous matter erecting a
harsh and arbitrary system of regulation
of transportation companies, did not
seem to appreciate the humiliating posi-
ton in which his confession of ignorance
placed him; he was apparently insensible
to the truth that he who attempts to ex-
pound doctrine must be fortified with
knowledge upon all essential facts relat-
ing 10 it.
Yet this exemplification of ignorance
was but one OF many instances which
accumulated the hearing before the COM
mittee with the fact that these rabid agi-
tators for the most part act the role of
the ignorant who venture in where the
wise fear to tread. MIR. Barry, for in
stance, appeared as the chosen exponent
of the demands of the San Francisco
Traffic Association, alleged to be COM
posed of merchants of San Francisco. in
the main. 1t is fair then to assume that
he was backed by whatever knowledge
of the subject in hand that body of men
possesses, and that he stood forward for
whatever vitality and substance there is
in the complaints of the people they as
sumo to represent, since that association
insists that in it is concentrated all there
is of popular complaint and demand con-
corning transportation of goods and prod
uce by rail in this State.
The conclusion is irresistible, therefore.
that these alleged grievances are not more
substantial than the vaporing generaliza-
tions of Mr.. Barry. 1t follows that the
voice of the people of the State is not
echoed by him, for when they make their
wants and wishes known there is no I'M
certain sound; not vague, indefinite and
generalized complaints, but specific, I'M
mistakable and clear-cut declarations.
Barry represented. therefore, but
handful of indictments, who caper in the
unauthorized assumption of the name of
the people. The motive is clear. 1t is to
incorporate into State policy a system of
class legislation that will create for San
Francisco artificial advantages at the
round cost of the interior; the purpose of
this handful OF peddlers, who appear to
have no true conception of what consti-
tutes the merchant, is, i'll other words, to
make San Francisco the one sole dis
tributing center, and the entire interior
its commercial vassal.
Returning to the ludicrous exhibition.
one of many, of ignorance on the part of
the chosen advocate of the Traffic Associ-
alton, and upon whose shoulders even
the mantle of Leeds appears to be misfit,
the facts are that after Texas had expert