The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1906-01-25
THE RAILROAD WAR.

M commercial bodies are expresslis
their opinion that the Western Pacihc
Railroad should be given every facllty
for getting well located terminals Oh '"'
bay. says the San Francisco Chrohlcie'
The list of influential bodies which nan
90 EXPRESSED themselves now includes
the Gamers Association, the San fran
cisco Chamber of Commerce., the san
Francisco Board of Trade, the Oakland
Chamber of Commerce, the Oakland Real
Estate and Insurance Association, the
Sacramento Chamber of mme the
San Francisco Merchants Association
the Alameda Butchers Association ana
perhaps others. 1t is interesting TO hoee
that the Alumni Association OF the
Oakland Polytechnic high school mas
adopted resolutions favoring the new
road. which indicates that the feeling
reaches all classes of the community.
AS the Chronicle said in the beginning,
the contest will really be settled n the
State courts, whose action cannot be af-
ICCleQ ny POpuldA -
sonable or however earnestly expressed,
because courts are compelled to admins
ter the law as they find it. Public SEN
timent, however, ought to be made ell
fective to prevent the Southern Paclhc
Company from maintaining its present
unreasonable attitude. There is no doubt
that the Western Pacific will be per-
mitted to construct IT'S piers and slips
when it reaches tide water. The main
thing is to get totide water. To reach
the desired point On the bay shore u
must cross property not used for ter
minal purposes. This property is as sub
ject to condemnation by the Western Pa
cifc as any other property, and in de-
cency the Southern Pacific should make
terms with the new company, as the
majority of other property owners DO,
and as it itself desires others to do when
II is extending it's own lines. The law
on this point Is clear. and there is no
reasonable doubt that the Western Pa
cifc will get it's right Of way in due
time. Instead, however, of recognizing
the situation and dealing with 1t as
ordinary decency requires. the attorney
for the Southern Pacific openly announces
that I'VE propose to contest every inch
of the way" That is pure, unadulterated
hoggishness. 1t is in open defiance of the
interest of the public. in whose behalf
the right of eminent domain is conferred
prisals from the public which has done
so much for the Southern Pacific. in re-
turn for which it finds itself scorned and
defed.
Under the captaion of the Western
Pacific Is Sure to Win Out" Tuesdays
Chronicle has the following:
We do not believe that there is any in
stance Of an important railroad being
permanntly debarred from access to a
large city by the opposition of a rival.
1t Is morally certain that the effort of
front Of a Francisco bay at the un-
occupied point most convenient for
traffic will form no exception. Presum-
ably the Southern Pacific Company does
not expect to keep the Western Pacific
away from the bay shore. What 1t did
set out to do was to compel it to make
its terminal at some point as %inconven-
lent as possible for the accommodation
OF it's traffic.
That is to say that the desire of the
Southern Pacific Company is to cause the
people who may wish to travel or ship
by the Western Pacific an enormous
amount Of unnecessary trouble. The
controversy is not between two railroads,
but between the Southern Pacific Com
pany and the people of California. As
between the Western Pacific and the tive
transcontinental roads now established
here the public would never concern itself,
There Is no reason to suppose that il
either the Western Pacific or the SAM
Fe had s~intrenched" itself on the Oak
land water front as the Southern Pa
cifc Company is intrenched it would fall
to do precisely as the Southern Pacific
Company is doing now. So 1t is not fol