The San Francisco call., 1899-05-31
a PLACHRD POSTED.

THE hackneyed scribe who initiates literary work
in the yellow buildng at the intersection OF Post
! and Market streets placarded the railroad view
OF the franchises before the Board OF Supervisors IN
the editorial columns of yesterdays Evening Post AS
usual the article was combination OF nonsense and
OF fasehood, with slight modification OF the ordin-
ary bullying tone OF the railroad when addressing the
public
Why any franchise should be granted for fifty years
when the municipality had determined to grant none
fo1 more than twenty-five; why no percentage should
be exacted for FIVE years when rate OF at least per
cent for that period had been fixed; why abandoned
franchises should be resurrected; why the Market
Street Railway Company should be awarded a COM
rete street railway monopoly terms written by 1t
self: why the people should be cheated out OF their
new charter-the purveyor OF puruent railroad mat
ter did not even pretend to explain. But he did
hold up one inspired lie and surround it with mean
ingess phrases. He urged that the franchises for
which arrangements had been made with supposed
majority Of the Board OF Supervisors, open to
competition and that each would be secured by the
highest bidder He failed to add that the entire
scheme OF robbery had been adjusted that the only
possible bidder would be the Market Street Railway
Company
The most familiar characterization of the railroad
despotsm that has been too long tolerated in this
State that the article contained the denuncation
OF the press and OF the public guilty OF "a silly and
injurious agitation" Any man any newspaper that
dares even to question the right OF the railroad to
take any public property covets without compensa
sation or to treat public officers its chattes,
has been for years liable only the vulgar abuse
OF railroad hrelings but realize railroad interfer
ence with business and even with social relations.
The creatures who the servie tools OF the Hun
tngton tyranny used to force his dictatoral edicts
upon a free community, absolutely keep ledger &C
counts with reputable citizens all the State, in
which they are debted and credited according to their
Independence or their subserviency They in
the habit OF paradng neurological statistics in order,
like the Apaches display the scaps they have taken
They pack municipal and legislative halls with the fes-
tering politicians they control and until orbearance
ceases be virtue, jostle their betters out OF the
way. They pirate about encouraging enterprise and
increasing solid population, when for thirty years
their principal occupation has been to fence out de
sirable immigrants and to plunder communities and
individuals The money they help Mr.. Huntington to
accumulate goes to the East, Newport News, to
Guatemala Africa to any other part OF the globe
except the State which the railroad has cursed with
execrabe service while it has drained its profits and
insulted its citizens
And yet these impudent carcaturists Of manhood
and OF decency attack who have resisted their
bleeding propensities and who have expended mil
lions in internal development and in those enterprises
which in spite OF railroad corruption have lifted the
State its present level and prepared reap the
benefit OF its existing advantages But they have not
appreciated their mortality realized that at
last they trhing with fire The broken pledges Of
the last campaign, the infamous candidacy OF Daniel
NJ Burns, the recent contempuous parade of absolut-
ism by their New York Pasha, and the cold blooded
audacity with which was sought to steal the last
OF municipal easements, have excited popu-
lar indignation to a pitch which forbids further
tri1ing and communicates emphatic and realistic
warning.
When, as now, the Huntington tyranny is on one
side and free press and honest citizenship on the
other, the best thing the hard-faced bullies OF the
railroad do is to relapse into temporary silence
and to the virtue OF modesty even though they
have it not.