The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-03
MR.. HUNTINGToN's OPPORTUNITY

Mr.. Coils P. Huntington is again among
the people of California and amid the
scenes where thirty years or more ago he
laid the foundations of his fame and for
tune as railroad builder and fnancier.
His coming has been heralded by several
unreserved interviews with himself as 20
the purpose of his present visit, while pull
sations of interest, rising almost to fever
in some quarters, have signalized his
approach. 1t is evident that the advent of
MIR. Huntington will be productive of i'm
portant results and that the places and
policies of his great corporation will
during his visit be adjusted upon basis
which shall be permanent and which may
perchance outlast the term of his natural
life.
If, early i'll his stay in San Francisco,
Mr.. Huntington, upon some bright, warm
Sunday afternoon, should take drive, or,
better, walk, around the lake in Golden
Gate Park which ripples at the rugged foot
of Straw berry Hill, and there should hear
the music of the waterfall echoed back to
it from the lips of laughing children, and
should see the smile of the little lake re-
Elected on the faces of men and women en-
ioying on its bordering lawns a needed
respite from their round of toll, and if the
magnate should wander nearer to the
waterfall and glancing along the rocks
which line its lower edge, should read
there the inscription, in gilded letters,
which records that lake and cataract are
his own gift to the people of San Fran
CISCO, he might be smitten with the
thought that he stands in the presence of
one of the opportunities of his life, and
such a one as comes to few men, and but
once.
What is this opportunity which Straw
berry Hill with its lake and waterfall might
suggest to Mr.. Huntington? 1t is this.
The gift which some years ago he added to
Golden Gate Park was pittance out of his
enormous fortune, but it has done more
than any other single act of his lifetime to
redeem his fame and soften public criticism
of his policy, Itdid this because it repre-
sented Mr.. Huntington in the unusual
role of benefactor of the people of Cali
fornia. 1t is the present opportunity of
Mr.. Huntington's career to become and
henceforth be in general what heretofore
he has been in the particular instance re-
corded at Strawberry Hill, viz. the bene-
factor of California in large and spl endid
way.
How? By considering we'll the attitude
which the corporation he controls has
held toward California and its people in
the past and the attitude which, in all JUS
tice, 1t should occupy in the present and
future; by bending his ear TO the optcry of
the entire State against schedules which
are exorbitant and unequal; against poll
cies which are narrow and selfish and de-
structiye OF industrial growth against rail-
road politics in every election, village,
township, city, county, State and National,
held in California;: against the railroad
lobby at the Legislature and railroad in
fluence over the officials, Commissioners and
courts of the State; against the strangling
grasp with which his INSCRIPTIONS agents
and servants hold the City of San Fran
cisco while they stunt her growth and rob
her of her wealth in utter defiance OF right
and law and reason. The universal protest
against these things Mr.. Huntington
should hear and heed.
If he shall do so, and do it now, Mr.. Hunt
ington will have grasped by its very fore
lock the crowning opportunity of his
career. By so doing he may easily Guido
each ana all of his three colleagues in
for far surprising colleges and art gal
leries and charities in the magnitude of
It's blessing would be industrial and politi-
cal freedom from the dominion of the
Southern Pacific Company. Will Mr..
Huntington lay hold upon his oppor-
tunity?