The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-31
HEATED ARGUMENT
OVER CORPORATIONS

CALL HEADQUARTERS, sACRA>
MENTO, Jan. 3O.-The Senate Committee
on Corporations is certainly made up of
some of the fighting members of that
body. The committee has hardly had
solitary session to date that has been
strictly peaceful. To be true, no fisticuffs
have been features of the committee
gatherings, but wordy wars have been
numerous.
This afternoon the committee met and
held session which will be recorded as
a historical one. Senator Shortridge of
Santa Clara and Senator Braunhart of
San Francisco contributed to the gayety
of the occasion. Senator Shortridge was
good-natured at all times, but Senator
Braunhart got rather warm because he
supposed that the junior Senator from
Santa Clara had termed him "a sand
lotter. This imputation he Indignantly
denied with considerable heat.
The matter under discussion this after
noon was Senator Langfords bill ito
regulate the granting Of telephone and
light, heat and power and other fran
ch1ses by the municipal authorities of in
corporated cities, cities and counties and
towns within the State of California, and
repeating conflicting acts"
rms bill provides that all franchises of
the character named above can only be
secured by the party or parties desiring
1t by him or them filing a petition with
the governing body, the City Council or
the Board of Supervisors, which body
shall advertise the franchise for sale in
for ten days, or, if it be a weekly news
paper, for four weeks. The franchise is
to go to the highest bidder, or all bids
may be rejected. A bond is to be required
or the successful bidder that he will faith
fully carry out the terms of his franchise.
Inc hrst clause in the bill that was OBJ
5ectionable was that giving to the
whether the successful bidder shall pay
lump sum for his franchise or paw an
annual percentage of not less than per
was stricken out and the only condition
according to the bill upon which a fran
chise can be sold is for percentage Of
the gross receipts
Then the next fight came over a section
requiring the governing body to adver-
tise the sale of a franchise as soon as a
petition was filed with them signed by
majority of the frontage on the streets.
Then in the original bill there was a pro-
viso that the governing body could prior
to the advertising change or alter the
route proposed by the applicant for the
franchise.
This. clause had its horns amputated by
the addition OF these words proposed by
Sen Senator Leavitt: If the change be in
the property frontage affected
But the great fight of the afternoon
came on Senator Braunhart's proposition
to make the limit of the life of any fran
chise granted under the conditions of the
act twenty-five years, and providing that
at the end of the life Of the franchise all
the line and property used to operate 1t
reverts to the city.
To this proposition Senator Shortridge
made a fine oratorical objection. He said
that the people were becoming very
ton was mentioned He stated that no
street railroads in California outside of
San Francisco were earning money for
their stockholders, and that II was to the
great shame of the State that the Los
Angeles streetcar bonds had been hawked
in every city in the country and refused.
paper men" said the Senator. indignant
ly this Senate should hire few news
paper men to do their work for them, so
that bills would be put In IN proper Lam
guage without numerically numbering
the English language.
LAS far as the proposition of my dear
friend, the Senator from San Francisco, is
concerned, l want to say that 1t is moth
ing more nor less than 'Yeritable confis-
cation of property. If the property of the
corporation is to be confscated at the end
of twenty-five years, the just thing to do
is for the city to guarantee an income to
the corporation for its property, which
it is going to take at the end of quarter
of century, just, perhaps, as 1t Is about
miserable sandlotism under the thin
guise of municipal reform"
Senator Braunhart replied to Senator
Shortridge in heated terms. He said that
his only desire was to exclude from the
bill those features which would bring it
In conflict with the provisions of the San
Francisco charter regarding the matter
of street car franchises and how they
should be obtained
Senator Shortridge insisted that bicycles
had ruined streetcar properties where a
city had decent roads.
The question was asked who drew I'D
the bill, and Herman de Laguna, who was
present, stated that he drew it up He
added that he had prevailed on Senator
Langford to introduce it.
Senator Langford came in afterward,
and said that he knew nothing about the
bill. He had introduced it by request.
He then retired.
Herman de Laguna is well known in
Los Angeles said a prominent citi-
zen of the Southern California metropolis
tonight ''He had been bartering and at
tempting to barter in franchises of vari-
Gus kinds for years. We look upon him as
a faker, and if Senator Langford has in
troduced any bill he drew, the Senator.
whom l know to be an honorable and an
upright man, has simply been imposed
upon"
The bill will come up for discussion later
by the committee, and 1t has a promising
prospect of being laid upon the table.