The San Francisco call., 1898-02-17
UNLAWFUL : ''I;l COMBINE lV OF
 RAILROADS Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Pool
 Interests. Interstate Commerce Reg- ulations Violated in
 California. Southern Part of the State in the Grip of Merciless
 Monopoly.
HUNTINGTON'S HAND SEEN
Evidence That He Is Directing Traffic Arrangements for Both
 Lines.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

! SAN DIEGO, Feb. 16.-Signs more spoken. convince the people of South
 ern California that the two great rail way corporations-the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe-have combined to make the State pay the highest tribute tha ] the population can bear. It is nc i longer a secret that c. P. Huntington and E. P. Ripley, presidents respective 1 ly of these two companies, have haC conferences on the subject. On more i than one occasion J. c. StubbS has spoken with authority from Hunting ton with respect to traffic regulations in this particular field. Mir. Stubbs is the advocate and apostle of thai gospel of railroading which teaches that everything which the land pro-
 duces and the sea yields should be taxed in hauling all that the traffic can bear. The devotion of MT. Stubbs to this principle of conducting railroad business contributed much to make the Southern Pacific, in the minds ot Californians, the most odious and de- spised of all corporations.
 When laws and public protests failed to give the people relief from the eX- actions of a strongly intrenched mo- nopoly, the oppressed producers of Cal ifornia turned their gaze to the East to watch for the approach of coni- peting road.
 The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe seemed to have more of the spirit If development in it's management, to be animated by more intelligence in it's policy of extension than any other Eastern road tending this way, and 50 its approach was hailed with especial delight.
 Never did a railway enter field With so much popular favor as the Santa Fe found in coming to California. Fig uratively speaking, California went out to the desert to meet the builders and tender them franchises, lands, conces- sions, rights of way, deep water ter minals and assurances of public sup port. Could the value of all that was rendered and accepted be computed ol a cash basis it would make a sum of money equal to the cost of construct ing a parallel line on the whole system of the Santa Fe between the Colorado River and the Pacific Ocean.
 The Santa Fe for years fulfilled the expectations of the people. New indus tries were brought forth Tn the State, cities grew and thriving towns multi piled. The traffic increased and the railway corporation under the effect i've administration of the old Santa Fe management was gratifled. Stories of the wonderful development of Southern California spread throughout the world. People living north of Tehachapi talked of returning prosperity and reasoned that it would not come until railway competition brought 1t.
 l.. c. .i0f of {6 immediately following the extension of the Santa F'e system to Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernar- dino.
 A change significant and ominous has taken place. The public is no longer in the confidence of the Santa Fe The corporation once regarded as liberal and progressive has gone by degrees down the grade until it has reached Stubbs class in the ethics of traffic.
 It is not all surprising that the first signs of the change were noted by the agents of the Santa Fe. It had been their pleasure to meet communities half way and make concessions where the points conceded would please the public and not deprive the road of profit. When instructions from headquarters advised against doing this thing for one town and that for another they began to talk In whispers.
 It was surmised that motives of econ omy caused the withdrawal of all time card advertisements from the newspa- pers along the line of the road. The newspapers are not affected to speak of by such curtailment of advertising ex- penses, but travellers in haste to ascer- tain the exact time of train arrival or departure have to hustle around to find hotel clerk or railroad ticket agent to get the desired information
 The Southern Pacific nature of a time-card advertisement was based on a peculiar system of rewarding merit If the paper constantly praised Mills, from whom all passes flow, and went into a rhapsody of delight when c. P. Huntington paid his annual visit to California, the editor was a good man whose ideas of journalism should be en- couraged. The Santa Fe advertise ments went to the press under different conditions. The company, so far as the press knew, had no Mills to praise and no Huntington to exalt. The time-c card publication was public convenience. The idea of public convenience has un- dergone a change. It Is now given out that if the publication of a time-card Lad" is a public convenience the news papers should publish it for the conve- nience of the public.
 ITdIIS were lOTHleTly moved With some regard to the convenience of the travelling public. Now the schedules are arranged. so far as one chief point in Southern California is concerned. so as to impose the greatest annoyance possible on the tourists who are num- bered by the thousands. To catch the morning train out of Coronado the traveller must rise at 5:30 o'clock in or der to get his breakfast and cross on the ferry to the railway station in San Diego. If the passenger can get his baggage to the station in time to catch the train his trunks go along, if not, they await until another train goes. The Santa Fe no longer considers that it collected from San Diego in a short time the sum of s12,000 for extra bag gage.
 When the promoters of the Los An geles Fiesta and the San Diego Water Carnival asked tha Santa Ea fo e+oud