The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-24
Mr.. HUNTINGTON AND THE LAW.
THE CASE OF THE RAILROAD MANATE CONSIDERED FROM OPPOSITE
POINTS OF VIEW
FOR THE PROSECUTION.

The history OF this country Will never
be complete if it omits an account of G. ?,
Huntington's operations and an analysis
of his influence on the business and morals
of the people. Whatever might be said in
his defense must be in comparison OF his
acts with those of worse men. If it be
said that, unlike Jay Gould, he never
wrecked a railroad, but on the contrary
strengthened every one that he owned,
that will merely be saying that his method
of accommodating wealth was different from
Gould's.
The methods by which Mr.. Huntington
has accumulated his wealth are notorious,
and need not be recounted here. The
various effects of the plans which he has
followed in that pursuit are more or less
clearly understood, but the theme is never
dull. The most unfortunate circumstance
attending them-one which schemers of
his shrewdness may always rely upon to
aid them-is that desperate people,
more eager to seize upon any means for
relief than able to appreciate its value,
fall an easy prey to their enemy masquer-
aiding as their friend, to charlatans who
seek the power to extort money, to honest
cranks and incompetents whose friendship
is more hurtful than their enmity, and to
other similar forces which paralyze all
efforts for relief, bring discredit upon the
cause of the wronged, and strengthen the
enemy's power. Huntingtons would be
impossible if the people were wiser. 1t is
not their moral sense that is at fault.
The future historian will not be able to
find that Mr.. Huntington's ignoring of the
ethical relation between transportation
companies and the people can be explained
on the ground that he was ignorant of its
existence. To do that would be to charge
him with lack of understanding, and most
likely ne would rather be called rogue
than fool. That he knows of the ex-
istence of this relation is proved by his de-
hberate operations to pervert and degrade
it. Were he not aware that men are honest,
he would not try to corrupt them. If he
were ignorant of the fact that laws in
tended to force him into honest ways were
an expression of sentiment of right-doing
on the part of their makers, he would not
resort to bribery to nullify them. If he
did not expect the making of laws to check
his business immortality, he would not set
about to elect lawmakers on whom he
could depend both to defeat laws which
the honesty of the community prompts
and enact others which are repughant to
the popular sense of right.
To assert that in the handling of his
business itself, without reference to these
phases of the ethical relation, he is igno-
rant of the moral relations which exist
between the server and the served between
master and servant, between the merchant
and his hot
portunity, between power and the manner
of its exercise, would be to charge him with
ignorance of one of the fundamental prin-
ciples upon which his success is founded.
If there is one thing in the history of bis
conduct about which there is no intelligent
doubt it is that the material prosperity of
the people whom he serves has never had
the smallest atom of intrinsic weight with
him. If he concludes that by charging the
people of Fresno exorbitant rates on their
products he can make more money and
secure it more quickly than by reducing
rates, and thus making the people more
prosperous and contented, he would never
hesitate moment to adopt the former
course. 1t is no concern of his that the
prosperity of those whom he serves would
enable them to have more comforts, in
creased facilities for moral and intellectual
development, and larger opportunities for
expanding into that higher and stronger
form of manhood and citizenship which
makes people wise and their government
firm.
Mr.. 'Huntington's policy has never con-
templated anything Interior, anything
that might even remotely tend to better
tho Of,
cidental benefit humanity may have re-
ceived from his operations, the fact of its
existence has no interest for him, and it
has been offset thousandfold by his de-
liberate acts to degrade. Concurrently
with the absence of any intention to do
good have been his deliberate acts of
wrong-doing, IN evading the laws, in shirk-
ing his taxes and in every other conceiy-
able way. If he has been faithful in the
performance of his written contracts, that
was the policy of shrewd business man.
The Chinese are noted for that In writ
ing Of the manner in which Mr.. Hunting
ton has fulfilled his moral obligations, the
future historian must pause in wonder and
dismay. So far as the public is concerned
Mr. Huntington may well have taken the
motto, After me the deluge."
1t is not only because he has failed in
the duty of trying to do good, but further,
because he has always and deliberately
employed his vast opportunity and power
to do harm, that he is hated For this he
will have unique place in American his
tory. The time now is almost past for
hoping that retribution will overtake him
in this life. He is an old man, and his
physical energies are close upon annihila-
ton. 1t would be weak soul that
would care to see him punished in
spirit of vengeance. Whatever profit
such punishment would bring would
have an exemplary value. While
every man is entitled to the full posses
sion and enjoyment of his own, the written
law and the moral sense which abides in
men prohibit such use of his own as will
work harm to others. The harm which
Mr.. Huntington has worked can never be
measured The smallest part of it is his
mean tyrannies and unsuitable greed prac-
ticed in the ordinary course of his business.
UNNECESSARILY greater is the moral injury
which he has done. Into what intricate
and devious ways it has wandered: what