The San Francisco call., 1899-05-10

OTQ6TeQ ana resolved The ~
O Attorney General of the State .
Q of California be and he hereby q
q is instructed to secure a dis Q
y missal of said case as soon as Q
= such dismissal can be obtained q
* and upon the conditions as to X
~ cost as herein indicated. ~
There was nothing of excitement or
striking feature to the meeting; the
whole proceeding did not require over
ten minutes time and everything was
as cut and dried as we'll -contrived
slate at a county convention. 1t was,
however, not happy occasion for any
one of them who participated saving,
of course, Commissioner Edison, who
had a laugh coming at the discontinue
of the majority, and made good use of
it. Commissioner Blackstock was as
mad as bear with a sore paw, and
though he spent his spare time in max
ing light of Judge Morrows censure
he demonstrated that it had struck well
! home by his i'll ll-disguised displeasure at
the newspaper representatives in the
room and his reiterated statement that
he had been too long in the law bust
ness not to know better than to ridicule
a Federal Justice.
Laumeister was not happy at all. The
pace set to the cracking of Mr.. Hunt
ingtons whip is evidently getting just
a bit too warm for him, and he did not
second Blackstock's maneuvers as
warmly as might be expected of one
of the Espees chosen ones. On the
contrary Mr.. Laumeister considered
Mr.. Blackstock with an eye of sus-
piciOn and was prone to agree at times
with Mr.. Edison when he took his stand
against the well-planned scheme of
which Blackstock was the pilot.
In view of the attitude of the court"
said Mr.. Blackstock, and Mr.. Ford's
| letter. l move to rescind the original
resolution resembling the so-called La
| Rue resolution, and l submit this reso-
luton to that effect" Then Mr. Black
stock moved its adoption and Mr.. Lau-
meister seconded. Only Mr.. Edison
voted against it.
Then Mr.. Blackstock offered the reso-
luton to dismiss. He made no speech
in its behalf; it was evident that none
was necessary. Mr.. Laumeister i'm
mediately seconded, and, with Commits
/
| adopted. Not, however, without objec-
tion from Mr.. Edison.
Il object to the passage of such
| resolution said he. The court has al
ready told US that it is not within our
province to ask for this dismissal. The
railroad, and not the State, is the plain
tiff in these cases, and Justice Morrow
said yesterday it was the PLAINTIFFS
business to ask for dismissal I think
the course that is being taken by this
board is without parallel in the history
of the State
Mr.. Edison stuck to his side of the
question as a matter of principle The
fact that the Southern Pacific had got
all it ever expected to get out of the
| grain-rate cases. delay, did not count
with him, and, as he said after the
meeting, he could not see the use of
permitting the Southern Pacific to un-
load upon the State thousands of dol
lars in costs it's suits had entailed.
Mr. Edson's little talk was we'll re-
ceived, however. Mr.. Blackstock lis
tened interestedly and voted aye. Mr..
Laumeister listened and voted like
wise. Mr.. Edison voted no. and the
resolution was declared adopted. 1t
did not take a minute, and then, to
stall further talk, both Laumeister and
Blackstock began to talk of adjourn
ment, as there was danger that the
question of the Stockton differential"
would be brought up, and that is an
other thing Mr. Huntington wants more
delay on. Things are going his way
very nicely under the present prohibi-
| tive tariff, and his friends the ware
housemen at Port Costa are well salts
| fed with rates as they are.
Edison, though brought 1t up before a
motion was made, and gave Blackstock
another opportunity to show his hand
Mr.. Edison thought some action should
| be taken at once. He said the Stock
| ton people had been waiting for four
months for something decisive and
nothing had been done. Il don't be-
| lieve we should do anything with it un-
| til this rate case business is fixed" re-
torted Blackstock. "and when it comes
to further consideration of it you can
count me out. I've got cases in, court
and can't attend special meetings"
Mr.. Edison looked surprised and so
| did Mr.. Laumeister. The Blackstock
there 1t was so palpably what Mr..
Stubs had asked for on the day be-
| fore that he couldn't rally enough nerve
to stand for it. We ought to do some
/ thing at once" said he, cor at our next
regular meeting, anyway. In fact, 1
think we should call special meeting"
! Edison agreed to this and adjournment
was taken to the next regular meeting
| on June 12