The record-union., 1895-09-16
THE THREATENED REDUCTION.

THE THREATENED REDUCTION.
The Railroad Commission, by majority
vote has acted in the matter of resolving
to reduce railroad rates as was to have
been expected. When men who without
proper examination take Office under
platform with a prediction threat to re-
duce railway rates 25 per cent. without
q reservation or qualification and utterly
regardless of the justice Of such proceed
ing, they can be expected to 60 right
through with the programme of dema-
gogio STUN bling. and carry out the
scheme of political body roaring with
prejudice and starving for votes.
II there is anyone who believes that
upon capital invested in railroading in
these days, he has yet to be found. But
here is commission that proposes to re-
duce the income from which profit is
possible, for discharge OF obligations, by
more than the earning capacity of the
roads involved. 1t is to be noted ss indi-
cative of the animus of the whole pro-
ceeding that deaf ear has been turned
to those who pleaded that II the scheme
is carried out 1t means the absolute
monopolization Of all carrying business
In the hands of railroad companies; that
it will not be possible for river carriers
to meet any such cut as is proposed
In rail rates. Such reduction will, Of
course, be regarded by invited capital as
q most attractive inducement for further
investment in California enterprises, and
as to railroad extension il will Of neces-
sity give it boom and greatly increase
its new mileage
We apprehend that there is no one with
brains enough to comprehend the funda-
mental proposition in addition, who will
fail to perceive what the possible, nay
the probable, effect of enforcing such a
reduction will be upon the wages of in
dustry. If the chief employer of skilled
labor In this State Is cut down one-fourth
In it's earning capacity with small hope of
the volume Of the traffic swelling ma
teriaily, it cannot in reason be expected
that 1t will continue to pay the best wages
known to railroad industry anywhere.
In this whole matter demagogy has
reigned supreme. Supposed duty to
Il oh L I'm
merely to delude voters is made superior
TO duty to the people. For we think 1t is
susceptible of demonstration that the
people are not TO be benefited by this
suicidal swing Of the official machette.
Indeed, since it is true that in many re-
spects rates are now lower, all conditions
considered, than in any other section
furnishing traffic to carriers, a cut OF
cne-fourth must result disastrously to
every interest that depends upon the
xapid and stable development OF the
State, and that is interwoven mex
tricably. as most are, with the prosperity
of the California railroad system.
If commission can confscate prop
erty and paralyze industry by such an
arbitrary act as ii has been resolved shall
be accomplished, then the right Of men
to appeal in equity and law for protec-
ton is destroyed, and the State is in the
hands of an autocracy, and that in turn
is the creature of political conventions
and ward clubs, in neither of which are
the weighty questions of railway traffic
considered with statesmanlike calm and
temper.
The ordinary man has been laboring
under the delusion that it is the bounden
duty of the Railroad Commission to deal
as fairly with railroads as with shippers,
to regard as jealously the rights of the
carrier as OF his customer. but nothing
stands out more prominently in this
whole matter than this, that the commits
sion in resolving to do the radically
wrong thing. takes no account whatever
of the rights of the railway organizations
of the State. Kowtowing to political
hobby ridden by convention hungry
for votes, and not judicial regard for hu-
man rights; subserviency to an embit
tered and reckless press rather than re-
gard for the rights and equities ofrailways
and the people. are the prominent feat