The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-22
RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS.

In its issue of yesterday the Examiner
undertook to cast doubt upon the efficiency
of The Calls effort to bring Railroad Com
missioner Clark to realizing sense OF his
duty in the matter of the regulation OF
railroad freights and fares.
1t was suggested by our contemporary
that the history of past commissions does
not furnish ground for a reasonable hope
that the Republican member of the present
one will perform his duty to the people of
the State. That this is in a large meas
ure true there can be neither doubt
nor denial. 1t is to be remembered,
however, that the several sets of Rail-
road Commissioners who have held office
in turn since the new constitution was
adopted have not been made up altogether
of Republicans. 1t is also to be recalled
that the Republican members of these
several commissions have not been the
only ones who have been faithless to their
official trust and subservient to the corpo-
rations they were elected to control and
regulate. Between the two great parties
which have contributed to the makeup
of every Railroad Commission during the
past fifteen years, honors are easy, when it
comes to reckoning as to how well their
servants have performed their work.
We shall indulge in no controversy,
therefore, with our contemporary over the
comparative unworth of Democratic and
Republican Railroad Commissioners in
the past. The present issue, and in fact
the all-important one, is not whether Com
missioners in the past have been remiss.
1,,+ +bo o,,1
each of its members, regardless of party,
will be faithful to their trust. In the effort
to bring this result to pass, the reference
of either Mr.. Stanton or Mr.. Clark to the
past record of either party as made by it's
Railroad Commissioners would not be very
effectual, and in its effort to point out to
Mr.. Clark which wav honor and duty lies
THE CALL expressly and purposely refrains
from commendatory reference to the past
history of the Republican party. 1t be-
ieves, however, that the time is ripe for
the Republican party to have its represen-
tatives in Office cut loose from the Southern
Pacific Company and come out from be-
meath the shadow of its evil influence.
We can conceive of no better way to per-
suade the manhood of the private and I'M
of California to assert itself in throwing off
the chains of its past subserviency TO the
interest of the Southern Pacific Company
than by inducing its official members so to
do. The honor and praise which Mr.
Clark would receive, not only from the peo-
pie of his district, but from the en-
tire State of California in the event
of his assertion of his independence
of railroad influence, and as result of his
faithful performance of the duties of his
Office, would go far of itself to encourage
the managers and members of the Repub-
ican party to Danish the Southern Pacific
Company from its councils and affairs.
The same remark applies to Mr.. Stanton,
and we doubt not that the Examiner, in
its earnest and active effort to impress him
with the sanctity of his pledge and with
the necessity of its observance, is actuated
by the same desire to redeem the Demo-
cratic party from the dominance of the
great corporation.
In the furtherance of this common DUR
pose the great newspapers of California
have neither time nor space for petty
squabbles over the attitudes OF the re-
spective political parties in the past. The
vital issue of the present is, how to secure
for the people of California reduction
and equalization of their exorbitant freight
rates through the medium of the Railroad
Commission. In order to accomplish this
there should be united and harmonious
action on the part of the entire COM
mission, if possible. If this should be a
vain hope, however, there still remains the
chance of securing majority of the COM
mission to agree upon a just and intelli-
gent schedule and proceed to enforce it's
adoption. To attain either of these results
will doubtless require the utmost harmony
of action on the part of every friend of the
people of California.
If such an effort shall succeed well and
good, and if it shall fail the people of the
State will at least have the benefit of the
final demonstration of the utter inutility
of the Railroad Commission of California
as an official agency for the regulation of
freights and fares.