The record-union., 1895-12-03
A STATES RIGHTS BOOZE MAN.

Our esteemed contemporary. the Call,
is edited with distinguished ability. 1t
grieves us, however, to rise from read
ing its splendid English with painful
sense of its inconsistency. We are
afraid our contemporary literary fin
ish is somewhat superior to it's capac-
ity for analytical reasoning.
1t finds in the Federal intervention
relating to the contest between the
Southern Pacific Company and the
State Board of Railroad Commission
ers an evidence of determination on
the part of the Government of the
United States to obliterate State sover-
eighty and to establish a centralized
Government. The Federal officers have
asked permission to intervene in the
injunction suit now pending before the
Circuit Court of the United States so
that the Government may be heard as
to the rates of transportation on the
lines of the Central Pacific Railroad.
NRbAA tlACSE 4AllGS lliC dONGIHIlEIll has a
second mortgage lien, and it claims to
have a voice in fixing rates Of trans
portation.
The Call says that the mere state
ment of this claim on the part of the
Federal authorities is sufficient to show
how utterly destructive its successful
q l. g
ereignty of the State
1t has not been long since a petition,
signed by over 100,0 citizens of Cali
fornia, melted thereto by the action of
a San Francisco newspaper, asked the
Government to take possession Of this
very Central Pacific Railroad, dis
charge the first mortgage, and own and
operate the road for the benefit Of the
people of California. Suppose the
prayer of these petitioners had been
granted, then the Government OF the
United States would have been a trans
porter within the boundaries of CaIifor-
MIA, and would have owned transport
alton Observation-Disclosures which would
have been exempt from taxation, and
equally exempt from all regulative
measures devised by the State.
The Call has intimated on many oc-
casions that the Government should
take possession of this road, discharge
the first mortgage leE, and become its
sole possessor. In that event the State
would lose all power to regulate the
road. 1t would be a Government high
way owned by the people of the United
States. and as a piece of Federal prop
erty would be beyond the jurisdiction of
regulative measures y the State of
California. The Government having in
tervened to protect the solvency of the
second lien, the Call finds its action a
menace to State sovereignty, and sees
in it danger fraught with even the de-
struction of State sovereignty alto
gether. And yet it has been but few
days since the same paper demanded
that the national sovereignty should
become as sovereign the proprietor of a
railroad line within the State of Cali
fornia.
Our contemporary therefore thinks,
on the one hand, that the desire of the
Government TO prevent the confscation
OF the property which stands as secur-
ity for its second mortgage lien a blow
at the sovereignty of theState; but it
at the same time is willing that the
Government shall absolutely acquire
the sole ownership of the property, and
thus place its regulation wholly beyond
the reach of the State.
The Government has claim against
the Central Pacific Railroad Company
for more than $50,000,000. 1t therefore
has a right to its day in court to deter
mine whether the regulative measures
proposed by the representatives of Call
ifornia are just and reasonable, or
whether they are indeed confscatory.