The morning call., 1894-10-25

the plans for the future as mapped out by
the executive committee.
President Isaac Upham occupied the
chair and the annual address of Traffic
Manager Leeds was the first order of busi-
ness. The address, or more properly the
report, had been carefully prepared and
covered fully the work of the past year,
the present condition of the association
and the probable outcome of the gigan tic
work now being undertaken. Mr.. Leeds
stated that the association had no apclO-
g1es TO offer lnasmuch as it had fully JUS
titled it's existence. and amply repaid every
expense and all the time and labor eX-
pended in the prosecution of its w0TK.
The commercial interests of the city and
State, he said. had been benefited TO a
larger degree by the Introduction of active
competition in the transportation bust
ness than By any other means, aud this
policy had been adhered to throughout the
entire existence of the association up to
the present time. The wisdom of this
policy, he claimed, had been fully justified
by the results.
''Ot course. the contest has been an ag-
gressive one" said Mr.. Leeds, "and natu-
rally has called out ali of the criticism
which could be Invented and pTopaeated
by the Southern Pacific and its friends.
and doubt not many sincere friends to
the cause OF the emancipation of California
from the eXtortions of that company are
deceived by false doctrine and criticism
emanatlng from that source. This has
generally taken on the form that there is
mutually OF interest as between the car
rler and the public, aud that our work
should be pursued upon the mutual bene-
fit association plan by conference, ETC., on
matters of mutual Interest. This is very
pretty In theory, but will not work out in
practice, as the experience OF all the kin
dred organizations to our own in this
country will demonstrate. The Traffic
Association of California has accom-
plished more for the commercial benefit
of California by an aggressive policy than
has been done by the combined efforts of
the whole Of them, so far as l am able TO
learn by Iretty careful observation.
"There are two good reasons why there
ia no neutral ground between the Southern
Pacific Company and the public on this
coast In the first place this railroad and
Its auxiliary organizations permeates to a
degree every social. political, financial
and commercial BODY of industry of Cali
fornia, and naturally their business trans
actions and transportation tariffs are
made up Of a com bin alton of discTimina-
tions as between places and individuals,
without any reference to value or measure
of services performed. In the second
place the Southern Pacific has discounted
the future long way in advance by their
enormous pitaliZltion, and they
will meet 10 one on any common ground
which does not first recognize their right
to full earnings on this fictitious capital,
large portion of which represents no out
Law on their part. And when they get
this much recognized there is then nothing
lef. for California, and hence nothing left
for mutual conference. BY the water In
their capital they take all of the blood
there is in California. How they have
managed to maintain this for years past
is a long story, some of the elements OF
which are named in the reason first above
stated.
"For two out of the three years OF the
existence of this organization we have la
bored under general business depression
and decline in values ia all property with
out a parallel in the history of California
since the advent of railroad transportation
in the State. so that any benefits which
have come from the reopeniDg of the sea
routes and the introduction Of competl-
tion have been more than Offset by the de-
cline in values, SO that the gain, instead
Of representing a profit, as would have
been the case under normal conditions,
actually represents only so much
loss. 1t is therefore not possible to cal
culate with accuracy the full measure OF
benefit which has come from the work
done by this organization. A fair estimate,
however, will place the decline in the cost
son Of the opening of the sea routes as
com petitOrs at not less than 40 per cent.
Iakng the business for the year 1892,