The San Francisco call., 1899-01-03
THE RAILROADS BaD FeITH.

= EFORE the election the railroad swore by all
the gods at once that it out OF politics. Its
- asseveratons were so loud and so constant that
it was almost painful to hear them They were ap-
parenty sincere that they implicitly believed
1t is feared that its pledges false and that
its dsguises have been thrown aside
Whether Dan Burns be candidate for the United
States Senate in reality for the benefit OF some
other person equally acceptable to the railroad and
less obnoxious to the public, question is presented
which every Republican in the Legislature should re-
gard of vital importance. That question is
whether the choice for President far as this State
is concerned shall be treacherously turned over to
the Democratic party i'll 1000 Unless Senator be
chosen who is at least negatively respectable and who
will represent the railroad only part OF his con-
sttuency, Republican defeat in 1900 is certain. Every
legislator who contributed that defeat would sound
his political death kne. There is escape from
this proposition. Only the sensational press assumes
the unrecognized right OF debating to courts or to
legislative bodies, which, within their proper limits,
should be firmly upheld in unrestricted independence
of thought and of action. There many Republl-
cans who would do no discredit to the Senate of the
United States-some by whom that body would be
honored-and every rght-hinking man, whatever his
individual opinion, should be satisfied with the selec
ton of OF them by the unfettered action OF the
Republican majority in the Assembly and the Sen
ate But there are two elementary facts upon which
right to insist-that the elected Senator be, first,
competent second, respectable 1t cannot be pre-
tended that either of these conditions is met by Dan
Burns, or by any other candidate to whom his in
fuence is likely to be transferred.
OF late years, and especially since the somewhat
general adoption of the Australian ballot, the voters
of the United States have exhibited marked indie
pendence and discrimination, as was strikingy proved
/ Tho eli Of 1out ITDIOr,
stump oratory and the alternate wheeding and bully
ing of newspapers like the Journal Examiner had
very little weight In this State the rantng of the
fusonists against corporations and property and in
favor of proletarian Democracy produced the exact
effect that not anticipated The voters exercised
their instructed and balanced judgments, and they
overwhelmingly demonstrated their aversion to free
silver at sixteen to and to all the other grotesque
and un-American features of the fusion platform,
Thus they vindicated the principle of popular
ereignty.
But there is one thing they did not do. They did
not hand the State over to the Southern Pacific Com
pany in order that it might choose Senator for its
own benefit and to enable Mr.. William F Herrn,
himself Democrat, to beat the Republican party in
1900 That is trick which the higher class Demo
of California and of the Union would themselves
be the first to expose and to condemn. All through
the late canvass in the Republican press and on the
stump the assurance definite and constant that
the railroad out of politics, and it Indignantly
and repeatedly denied that its det hand had moved
the Republican State convention or any county, dis
trict municipal convention. The truth undoubted-
y is that vote more expressive of the deepest
tments of the people cast in all history.
II 1t should turn any ofivoro elected,
municipal State, executive judicial or legislative
secretly railroad tools then the public and the
press were grossly and wantonly deceived. While
alsehood is virtually confessed by the railroad
so far the legislators themselves concerned the
presumption is that they parties to the decep-
ton and that they are beyond corporate dictation
and therefore, beyond the power of Dan Burns and
his associates
The Southern Pacific Company has right to fair
treatment, which it has always received but to
nothing If it seeks to force the election
of a Federal Senator, owned by ITSELF and should
succeed, confidence in the Republican party will be
locally destroyed This would be the fact even if the
himself were of fair standing, and doubly the
fact if should be put forward that stinks in
the nostris of decency Surely the Southern Pacific
Company itself, embracing does so many gentle
identified with the solid interests of the country
does not really imagine that it falsify its own
pledges, and by brutal coercion and by coarse brib-
cry compel the election of Dan Burns or his substi-
tue through the representatives of free and indie
pendent American constituency? Can it be possible
that it has reached such an exaation of self-itnport-
ance that it proposes to substitute itself for the
legislative department of the Government and in the
name OF the State, appoint Dan Burns or some one
like him as its agent at Washington? If this condi-
ton OF inebriey exist it demands correction and we
have faith to believe that correction will be admins
tered by the Legislature, not only from policy but
on the higher ground of principle II the State Re-
publican organization should be smashed into pulp
through unprecedented betrayal of the people and
violation of definite pledges, responsibility would
be incurred that the railroad could hardly bear
There would be political revolution in California
The same weight OF public sentiment that crushed
Organism in 1896 and fusion in 1893 and held all
human rights including property, whether of indvid-
uals or corporations, within the equal protection of
the constitution and the laws will smash the railroad
power II 1t attempts to usurp the Government. And
the next lesson it receives will not be from cranks