The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-12-15
SUTRO ON THE FUNDING BILL.

To the People of San Francisco: Sur
rounded by the most imminent danger. we
are sumb ering.
We eat and drink and amuse ourselves
and talk about cleaning the streets and
then go to sleep. and sleep all night
and dream of the happy times which are
coming.
Our dailies are only half asleep. They
wafer article on "The Fundin Bill, with
not enough energy displayed to disturb
our slumber.
The enemy. however, is wide awake"
c. p. Huntington is awake and stays
awake all night. He is at work with
might and main. making the great effort
of his life. He has surrounded himself
with a powerful lobby. Shrewd lawyers,
unscrupulous politicians, brbers. thieves
and associated villains are found in his
retinue.
The honest American citizen bushes at
the very thought that Congress can be
bribed. Blush away then, you innocents-
blush till your blood does no longer circu-
late in your cheeks, for it is true that mem
bers of Congress are being bribed and one
after another falls.
Hundreds of mem bers of Congress were
defeated at the late election, in which they
spent their last dollar; political oblivion
awaits them, and Mephisto pheles stands
there grnning at this propitious circum-
stance, and shakes sack onaining
$4,000 in their faces. Poor humanity
weakens and petitions and signatures
CONT for nothing.
One hundred and fifty votes will GARY
the day; multiply this with 10000 and
you have 100000 to be expended in cap
frVE Inv /. l..
not highly educated man, but he has
studied ari 'hmetic sufficiently to know
how to deduct 100000 from ST., 900. 900.
which leaves him clean proit of S74,-
900 600.
But this Is not all; he sbrewdy calcu-
lates that the passage of the funding bill
Will increase his power over the Pacific
Coast manifold. and If Re has been able to
keep out competing railroads for the last
twenty-five years. he will be better able to
keep Out competition for the next half
century to come, giving him the sole mon
opoly OF the carrying trade and making it
an easy task to extort from the people of
the Pacific Coast additional freight rates
to ray tie interest under the funding bill.
w-citiZens, the day that funding
bill becomes law, he real-estate values
Of San francisco will shrink 10 per cent,
II thirty millions of dollars, and those of
the State in proportion.
A funding bill will pass before the next
4th OF March, or else all indications and
former experiences are at fault. There is
sheer possibility that calamity may be
averted by dispstching some able, honest,
fearless agents 10 Washington, by dis
tributing masses of literature bearing on
the subject, not 40 much among the men,
hers of Congress. but among the American
press, aud thus bring about such feeling
Of indignation that some of the bribed
members will falter and fail to come up
to time.
At the last session of Congress- I brought
about, almost single-handed, just such a
result and l alone footed the bills.
Is 1t fair that one man should be taxed
again for all this expense, while all the
people share in the benefits of the result?
have subscribed $1,000 already and dis
patched'an agent 10 Washington.
Let 1000 citizens como forward and sub
scribe one dollar ($D each, or as much
more as they please, to be paid in imme-
diately at the offices of THE CALL or the
Examiner. and will undertake to pit that
$4,000 against Huntington's millions and
possibly beat him at that.
Five thousand dollars will 90 long way
toward paying one or two more tIusty
agents to proceed to Washington at once,
and it will flood Washington and the eoun-
try with enough literature 10 scare the
most braZen Of the corrupt brood.
Let US make the attempt, ard if we can
not find 1000 citizens with sufficient pa
iriotism to put in one dollar (S1) apiece
shall undertake the fight again all by nv
self. ADoLPH SUTRO.