The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-19
A VOICE FROM THE PAST.

The United States Circuit Court has
been engaged during the past week in
listening to the reading OF the record of
the Pattison Railway Commission as por-
ton of the evidence introduced on behalf
of the People of California in the pending
action to enjoin their Railroad Commits
sioners from performing the duties i'm
posed by the express terms OF the State
constitution.
The situation is somewhat singular. The
court Is occupied in hearing the declara-
tions OF the controlling spirits OF
the Central and Southern Pacific
railroads, made under oath almost
ten years ago before Congressional
Committee, and now exhumed from the
dusty archives of the past to be used
with overwhelming force against these two
corporations, although the lips of all OF
the then living witnesses, save one, are
now closed in death. The incident illus
trates aptly the truth embodied in the
poem OF Eugene Aram's Dream
So wills the fierce avenging sprite
TIL blood for blood atones;
Aye, though he's buried in a cave
And trodden down with stones,
And years have rotted OFF his flesh,
The world shall see his bones.
The Pattison Railway Commission was
one of the most remarkable bodies which
ever met in California, made an inauisi-
ton or formulated u report. 1t was
an absolutely honest and perfectly fear
less Congressional committee, appointed
and equipped with power to investigate
the scandals which had arisen over the
construction Of the Pacific railroads and
OF which the stencil had blown east
ward and into the halls of Con-
gress until some inquiry into their
origin and nature became q public ne
cessity. At the instance of Pattison of
Pennsylvania the commission was ap-
pointed with himself at the head It came
to California, and during the years of
1869 conducted the investigation which
Is now finding its way into the
records OF the Federal courts. For
time the magnates of the railroad felt
themselves bound to submit to examina-
ton and testified with certain degree of
freedom. But they soon discovered
which Pattison sought for the
truth was more than their record of dis
honesty could endure and they then APP
pealed to certain O: their plant tools upon
the bench Of the Federal courts for protec-
ton. 1t was granted. The Pattison COM
mission was told that it could not force
testimony from unwilling lips or compel
the production of discriminating records,
and the commission was obliged, re-
luctantly, to forego its effort, and base its
report upon the evidence already ad-
duced. That report which was prob
ably written by Pattison himself, is
one OF the most scathing arrangements of
the Pacific railroads which has ever been
put to print. The present Federal court
may feel impelled to refuse it admission
as a part of the evidence in the pending
case, but its conclusions, based as they are
upon the declarations of the railroad
builders themselves, it should hesitate to
disagree with or disregard.
There have been some singular things
developed recently with reference to this
report. 1t is contained in several volumes
of public records, and at one time was
easy of access upon the shelves of local
libraries. Strange to say, from every pub
! lie library and from many semi-public
places such as newspaper Offices these
volumes have mysteriously disappeared
until it is now almost an impossibilitv to
find complete set of the reports in this
City. In view of this fact 1t is
interesting to learn that the substance of
the commissions work is to be made a.
portion of the record of the Federal court,
from which it is hardly credible to believe
the same interested larcenist will have
the audacity to attempt its abstraction.