The San Francisco call., 1895-10-10
Another Big Batch Filed With
the Railroad Commits
sion.
ATTITUDE OF THE RAILROAD,
1t Receives Considerable Attention,
+ Amendments to the Grain
Tariff.

CIlnlndItOHS III gram IdIeS Dy the large
number of complaints that were received.
These numbered no less than six
| Besides giving brief consideration to
| these complaints and arranging for their
proper future disposition, several revised
grain schedules were agreed upon, and the
first step was taken in the direction of de-
fining clear legal issue between the COM
mission and the Southern Pacific Com
pany.
George G. Arnold, secretary of the San
Diego Property-owners' Union, appeared
before the commission yesterday and re-
quested that action be taken looking to
the rebuilding of that portion of the South
ern California Railroad between TemecuIa
and Oce anside which was DESTROYED by
washout. He stated that the San Diego
people had contributed 100000 toward
the building of the road and felt that they
had right to demand that it be operated
throughout its length.
The members promised to give the mat
ter early attention and a petition on the
same subject was read from the citizens of
Murietta.
Then came an appeal from the leading
merchants and citizens of San Jacinto,
Riverside County, for a reduction in pas
senger rates. 1t reads:
We, the undersigned citizens of this town,
do most respectfully petition your honorable
body to cause by your request, or by the law of
this State, to be reduced the rates, to three
cents per mile, between this point and San Ber-
nardino City and Riverside City via the Santa
Fe Railroad. The distance from here to San
| Bernardino is only forty-four miles, for which
| the Santa Fe Railroad charges passenger fare
of 81 95, said rate being over cents per mile.
This is the only section in Southern Califor-
MIA that is settled where the rates are SO high.
| We have petitioned the Santa Fe managers for
| the reduction, but did not receive q satisfac-
| tory answer We feel that this is an Injustice
! to this section, which is now settling up very
| rapidly. The high fare keeps many persons
| from visiting this section and apparently we
| are treated by this railroad company as If our
| section was desert, when on the contrary it
is one OF the finest sections, both for health
and otherwise, in Southern California.
| In Los Angeles County this road has fares
even below three cents per mile.
| 1t was decided by formal motion to hold
! a meeting of the commission at San Diego,
beginning on October %, and the secretary
was ordered to notify the railroad COM
| panies and the complainants of the pro-
posed meeting, and also to insert the
requisite notice in the San Diego papers
| J. G. Garrison wrote the board as fol-
| lows from Forest Hill:
| Noting by the daily papers that you are
| about making some reductions on freights,
| take the liberty OF calling your attention 70
1
| Sacramento to Colfa1, trusting you will look
| into the matter and make such alterations as
| you deem necessary. The high rate has been
| a constant Injustice to the merchants in this
| section, owing to the fact that teamsters haul
| in here, via Auburn, cheaper than Is is pos
1 sible for us to do so.
/ be reduced to IA or Is cents II would benefit
| not only ourselves, but the railroad company
also, in view OF the fact that all the -four used
| in this section would be hauled by them to
| Colfax. AS it is at present they are losing the
| freight on thousands OF pounds of flour
hauled in by the teamsters from below.
We have Communicated with the railroad
company several times in regard to this
matter, but they have steadfastly refused to
make any reduction. The ears are loaded in
| Sacramento and unloaded at Colfax at no ex-
pense to the company. They simply haul it a
| few miles and then charge us "a cents per
100 pounds by oarlots. Any private indi-
| yidual can get 100 pounds OF flour in Sacra-
mento and have it landed here nearly as
| cheap as we can who buy 1t in large lots the
| rate they get being % cents per hundred
| pounds.
This will be taken up at the next meet
| ing of the commission.
DR.. Fred Hutchins of Woodbridge called
| the attention of the commission to a re-
| markable condition of things in the trans
| portation situation in his section, in a
communication strongly tinged with satire
IN its concluding sentence. 1t is as follows:
| In my letter of last week made an omis
/ IL
your board and the public. Mr. Goodman, in
| his answer to my first communication, says
| am In error about the distance between Wood
| bridge and Valley Springs, and that the road is
| twenty-nine and six-tenths miles in length.
! stated in my letter to Mr.. La Rue that the
| distance between Woodbridge and Valley
| Springs was about twenty-five miles.
| Mr.. Goodman says the road is tWenty-nine
| six-tenths miles in length, which l believe is
true, but there is a little over eight miles of
| the road, that portion between Bracks and
Woodbridge, over which train has not been
run for years. This would leave less than
twenty-one miles as the distance between
| Woodbridge and Valley Springs, over which
the fare is 81 70, or almost cents per mile.
OF course Mr.. Goodman does not know that
over eight miles OF this road is virtually aban-
doned, aud that fences run across it in half
| dozen places, for see in his freight schedules
| he puts in the rates to Bracks.
The people about here assign as the reason
why trains nave not been run to Bracks Land
| ing that the farmers would avail themselves
| OF water transportation to get their products
to market and the merchants would use the
| same means to get their goods in. Lumber for
| all this section now comes to Bracks by
steamers and sailing vessels, and then is
| hauled to the different towns by teams; and
| road as far as Lodi, which is the center of the
| lumber trade for this section.
The reasons assigned by the people living in
this end of San Joaquin County for the nom
| use of eight miles of this railroad may be all
wrong, as 1t is not to be expected that people
| engaged in the everyday vocations Of life
1
| tions of transportation, and this might be ex-
| pected after having been told for 8 quarter OF
a century by so good authority as the officials
of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of
Kentucky that these questions were entirely
| beyond our comprehension. But when we see
teams hauling both freight and passengers
right beside a railroad and in competition with
it we think there is something wrong.
The secretary was instructed to serve q
copy of this letter on the Southern Pacific
Company and to ask why the portion of
the road between Bracks and Wood bridge
is not operated.
From G. A Hoppe of Nevada City, pro-
prietor OF the Colfax and Nevada City
stage line, came the following appeal:
take the liberty to write to you to inquire II
there is not some way to put q stop to the
Nevada County Narrow-gauge Railroad be-
tween Coifax and Nevada City, selling excur-
sion tickets. 1t is now very near three months
since they have started selling them. Every
day they have an agent on the Southern Pacific
selling these tickets for one trip or the round
trip and they intend to force me off the road
by these tickets.
AS / understand, these tickets are issued to
eyade the law of this State, and don't think.
they have q right to sell them for one trip and
call them excursion tickets. Inclosed find one
of their tickets which was sold to a lady about
two months and half ago for one trip by their