The record-union., 1893-02-07

lH6 Sldte OF OalIOrQla 10 give lnlS great
county railroad communication with the
outside world"
Will call the attention of Mr.. Leeds
and the Traffic Association of San Fran
cisco TO this sign. 1t is standing re-
proach to them.
II Is safe to assume that within a year
from the construction of a.lailroad into
Lake and Humboldt the taxable value OF
land in those counties would have in
creased at least 100 per cent.
But what is this Traffic Association
Let US look into it little.
l maintain it is not, as its title would
indicate, a traffic association of Cali
fornia." | have it on the authority of a
gen nIeman who helped to organize it that
" per cent. of its members reside in San
francisco. The other per cent. consists
OF citizens of other parts of the State,
whose names were put on for effect, who
take no interest in its proceedings and
contribute nothing TO its revenues.
lnese san francisco merchants, during
a dull period of dull trade, and looking
around for some means of bettering the
situation, imported from the East gem
tIeman whose name came before the
country In connection with the Trans
continental Association, and they put him
IN charge of their association. This gem
tieman immediately, from his Office in
San Francisco began to reform" mat
ters, and in one OF his public speeches at
a dinRer of the Chamber of Commerce
announced what he no doubt in his fresh
ness candidly believed, that the State was
langulshing under what he was pleased to
term your one railroad"
/ am glad my friend Leeds has come to
sacramento, because he has certainly
learned since coming that instead
OF one railroad there are more than
thirty railroads in the State. He
has learned something of the
greatness of California; that there
are mountain roads as well as valley
roads: that there are circumstances under
winch one road may live and earn fair
interest on its investment, while other
roads Ianguish and starve; that no uni
form distance tariff can be just or reason
aDle as applying to all roads in this State.
ana what IS true of all roads must be true
OF roads forming parts OF system of
roads; that while his favorite State of
Kansas has 5000 miles of railroad, much
OF which is bankrupt, California has as
yet but half that mileage, though with
double the area. He has learned, hope,
that the crying need of California is
more railroads.; that railroads have been
tne cause oil her present prosperity and
are Indispensable to her further de-
yelopment; that, if instead of pulling
down and trying to cripple railroads now
existing in the state, which have done so
much for the State, the San Francisco
1raihc Association would inaugurate and
encourage railroads to Humboldt, to Lake.
Del Norte, to Lassen, to Modoc, and to
other counties holding out their hands
ana seeking railroad communication,
they would accomplish far more for the
State and for San Francisco than by any
amount OF rancor and defamation of the
men who have invested their own capital
ana that which they have been able to
borrow, for the building of railroads and
DEVELOPMENT of the country
But l maintain this complaint of the
Guy, Whlch has had portion of its trade
curtalled by natural causes and by the
building of competing lines of railroads
to the north of us and on the south, is not
an index to the true situation, but is a
libel on the State, which, if allowed to
pass unchallenged, may do it serious in
jury.
My duties require me to make fire.
quent visits to Eastern States, and | can
say from personal observation that Cali
lorna Is to-day the most prosperous
State IN the Union, and her DEVELOPMENT
is, and has been steadier, her wealth
greater, her happiness and prosperity
/ better assured than any other State; and
II our San Francisco friends would de-
vote some of the 500, 900, 900 lying idle in
ner banks or loaned only at low rates of
interest on city real estate, for the devel-
| opment OF railroad, irrigation and kim
dred enterprises, we would have such a
| season OF prosperity as would leave in
| the shade the famous "boom" in the
southern counties. San Francisco would
see her trade revive, and would be too
busy IN attending to her legitimate busi-
ness to send a traffic manager to Sacra-
mento with a proposition to insert i'm our
organic law scheme of rates and classi-
| hcatlon, which, to put it mildly is
absurd and ridiculous, and which even
the distinguished Senator who pre-
sented 1t apologies for as an ''innoya-
| tion."
We maintain that this enormous in
crease of S761, 600, 600, a sum nearly three
times the total wealth of Kansas, speaks
louder than any words of mine. They
place the burden of proof on those who.
in their ignorance and short -sightedness'
detame and belittle our fair State.
L respectfully submit no evidence has
| been produced to show affirmatiyely why
there is any necessity for reducing or in
any way changing the existing railway
rates of this State. No representative of
any industry has appeared before you to
complain or produced any evidence tend
ing to show that the railroads OF this State
nave not In the past occupied and are not
now occupying their true and proper place
in the industrial development of the com
monwealth; that they are not now doing
all that the State has power to compei:
that the growth of California, the deyel-
opment OF It's agricultural, mineral or in
dustrial resources are being in any man
ner restricted or impeded by acts of
transportation companies.
NO representative of any industrial in
terest has appeared before you to make
| showing of this character for the simnle
reason that no good cause for complaint
against the rates or methods of the rail-
roads exists
On the contrary, it is true that the rail-
roads are doing all in their power to
make the State great and prosperous. 1t
is to their interest that this should be
done. If in their power to exact ratess
the enforcement of which would result
IN distress and poverty to communities
along their lines, no one interest would
feel the harmful effects more quickly or
! forcibly than the railroads themselves.
The business interests of railroad com
pany are best promoted by prosperity in
every branch of industry which in any
way employs transportation, and it is a
| fact, so far as the influence of railroad
Hcompanies can contribute to this end, the
State to-day is prosperous. and no arbi-
trary reduction in the average rates now
charged for the transportation of freight
or passengers should be made.
At the conclusion of Mr.. Gray's remarks
| the committee adjourned until this even
Ing at 1880 O'Clock, when the hearing will
| be resumed.
THE PROCEEDINGS.