The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-11
FOOLISH FEARS.

The statements made by the directors of
the San Joaquin road in reference to the
lease of China Basin, published in the
CALL yesterday, are certainly sufficient to
convince any man of the sincerity of the
promoters of the enterprise, unless 1t
should be some man in whom suspicion
has become so predominant character
istic that the eye cannot see, the ear can
not hear nor the mind learn of anything
that does not suggest the possibility OF
fraud or danger.
That there are people so naturally in
clined to forebodings of evil they will con-
jure up improbabilities to base their fore
holdings on, if nothing else serves, is well
known. Has it not been narrated that an
elderly maiden was once found sitting
upon doorstep bitterly weeping, who, in
answer to an inquiry concerning the cause
of her grief, walled out in a voice of woe {:
~ was just thinking that if [ should
marry and should have beautiful child
and if some one should dig well IN the
vacant lot over there, and if the child
should go into the lot to play and fall INTO
the well, he would be drowned and L
should lose my child"
out its parallels in common life. Is not
the dread which some of the Harbor Com
missioners have in the present case a
parallel? The Commissioners say: If
this, if that, if the other should happen in
such and such a sequence the Valley road
might pass into the hands of men who If
certain additional possibilities should hap
pen would be in q position where the
Southern Pacific under conceivable con-
tingency would be able to get control of
the lease and drown the baby competition
in the monopoly well.
Testing aside, however, the vast impor-
lance of the projected line raises every
question that concerns it to the degree of
a great issue. The Harbor Commissioners
should look at the question of the lease in
the light of its effect upon the State and
upon all the industries thereof. Why
should there be any weak forebodings of
evil at the very time when every prospect
is bright and every heart is full of hope
and encouragement? The State and the
people have such urgent need of the COM
peting road, with terminal facilities in San
Francisco, that it would not be bad bar
gain to get the road even at the price of
giving the China Basin outright as free
gift to the company that builds it.
No such gift, however, is asked for, ex-
pected or even suggested. The company
asks only for lease of the basin at a rental
of $1,000 year under terms that will assure
the road the possession of that terminal
for fifty years. In consideration of this
the company is pledged to improve the
property and to enter at once upon the
construction of the proposed road. No
sane man who has any knowledge of the
conditions under which the road has been
organized and its stock pooled can have
any reasonable doubt that the State will be
a great gamer by the transaction. Fore
bodings of evil are, of course, always
possible, but IN this case they are close to
the verge of folly. Men who take counsel
of their fears rather than of their hopes
never achieve anything, and in this case
there are great things to be achieved. 1t
is time for US to have confidence in our
selves and in our fellowmen, and the Har-
Dor Commissioners owe it as duty to the
State to go forward and not stand aghast
at some remote possibility of an improb-
oh