The morning call., 1895-01-25
MR., HUNT1NGToN's SCHEME.

! We have had many petitions and resolutlols
against the Reilly funding bill and are llAely
| to have more, yet neither that nor any otner VI
| the pending measures has been pubnsned III
! full and few if any of our people are aware Oh
| their exact provisions. There is danger, leal'
| that by emphasizing our opposition 10 tne
| Reilly funding bill we may furnish an excuse
| for supporting measures as bad as or even
worse than it, but bearing different name
and different nominal paternity.
1t should be understood that the opponents
| of the refunding scheme object TO 1t IN any
| shape or form; that we want the account OF
| this long-winded Pacific railroad y1llalny
brought to settlement now, while yet some OF
| those who committed the frauds In the con-
struction OF the roads yet live, and some OF
those who recollect their crimes freshly still
survive TO call them to account and there can
be some hope of justice being done in the set
tlement. Postponement of the issue means the
triumph of the knaves who dishonesty APP
propriated to themselves the subsidy INTENDED
for the public benefit, and 1t also means the
fastening on the public, and especially on the
people of California, monstrous debt for their
benefit. We do not want any Representative OF
Senator to excuse voting for any extension OF
time or refunding scheme on the ground that
he supposed that the defeat of the Reilly bill
was all that was needed. have procured
copies of the various pending bills and learned
the state of this proposed legislation. My in
terest in the railroad question is neither re-
cent nor unknown to the public, and may
without vanity ask attention to the following
suggestions:
In the Interest of the Railroad.
I take it for granted that the Reilly bill
finds its way into the House of Representatives
at the instance of the railroad lobby and is en-
gineered in that interest and possibly it may
Ha 4aI>I 10 Of 9TH
affected by it; but so far as the Central Pacific
and c. P. Huntington are concerned, have no
hesitation in saying that they do not desire its
passage and do not intend to pass 1T in its
present shape. 1t is a stalking-horse for some
thing else, and that something else is what we
have to fear. Your readers should understand
that it contains provision that it shall not
take effect as to any of the roads named in 1t
until it has been accepted by the company own
ing such road by a formal vote recorded in its
minutes, and that if accepted by any company
the Attorney General of the United States is, by
another section, authorized to commence suit
in that company's name against any and all per-
sons who have ever been its directors, to re-
cover all moneys and property of which they
have defrauded it, and when recovered to pay
such sums into the United States treasury.
Those of us who remember the compromise
of the Sam Brannan suit and that of the An
Congressional railroad investigations, viii find
it hard to believe that Mr.. Huntington will
ever consent to the passage of a resolution by
the Central Pacific directors accepting law
like that, or that he will make any effort to
have such law as this passed by Congress.
think it perfectly safe to bet any odds that the
Reilly bill in its present shape will never pass
Congress, and just because of Mr.. Huntington's
opposition. "Honest Iago' will ''take order
for it,"
Purpose of the Reilly BaI.
What then, the reader may ask, is the pur-
pose of presenting and pushing it to an issue,
as appears to be now designed? can only
answer that question conjecturally but from
long watching the "ways that are dark and
tricks that are vain," whereby these people
are accustomed to procure the legislation they
desire, am led to believe that the scheme in
the present case is about as follows: To pass
the Reilly bill through the House of Repre-
sentatives, either in its present some modi-
fed FORM after q discussion in which stress
will be laid on the provisions of the fourteenth
section for the recovery OF all the stealings of
the Contract and Finance Company, and the
payment of the plumber into the public trea-
sury. This will afford irst-class opportunity
to Mr. Huntington's "anti-railroad" friends to
prove their hostility to his schemes and their
devotion to the public interest by apparently
voting against him. 1t viii then go to the
Senate, where the measure Mr.. Huntington
really intends to pass Will be substituted for it
either in the committee or in the closing hours
of the session in a conference committee. Mr..
Huntington's 'fanti-railroad" friends viii vote
for it under the mistaken supposition that it
still contains the provisions for the recovery
of the plumber. They viii of course be much
surprised to discover their mistake after the
close of the session.
If asked what right I have to make this
assumption, refer to the telegraphic CORE
spondence of the press in the early part of the
last session of Congress, wherein was recounted
the appearance Of C. P. Huntington before the
Pacific railroad committee of the Senate, ex-
planning and defending the provisions of bill
then laid before that body, which, though not
one which he considered fair or Just to the
railroads, or at all what he would himself
desire, was yet one that if passed by Congress
the railroad magnates would, he thought, in
Difference to the public wishes so expressed,
accept. The bill was but imperfeetly summar-
lied in the press dispatches at the time, and
public attention was soon after diverted
from it by the introduction into the House of
Representatives of the Reilly bill and two
others on the same subject, the subsequent
report of Mr.. Reilly's substitute for all three,
and the various discussions and proposals re-
lating to it that have appeared since; so that
the original Huntington bill has been lost
sight of and forgotten.
Not for General Circulation.
The Reilly bill is numbered H. r. 1898 and
is accompanied by Report Nc. 1890, July 81,
1894. careful reading of it having convinced
me that twas not what Mr.. Huntington wanted
passed, recalled the press correspondence
spoken of above and set on foot an effort to
procure a copy of that which Mr.. Huntington
had so kindly explained to the Senate commit
tee some time before. learned however, that
it was not to be had. There were various rea-
sons. The number of copies was somehow very
limited; they had not been placed on Senator's
tables or files as is usual; the clerk had no
extra copies; only few had been printed for
the use of the committee and there were no
ex ira ones; in fact, it turned out that the bill
had never been ordered to be printed at all,
and indeed had not been introduced! 1t was
only informally before the committee; If they
should decide to report it, it would be printed
and then I could have copy.
1 persevered in my search, and was at last re-
warded by the receipt OF a copy of the docu.
ment from a source l am not at liberty to
name. 1t is, am sure, the only one in Cali
fornia outside of the railroad companies in
u 7 ~