Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-11
GROWERS AND RAILROADS

OhOWEhO hIND hhlLhOEtDo
With the Southern California citrus
fruit growers the question is not sc
much the personal attitude of the rail-
road companies for or against them as
it is the power of the railroad COM
panies.
The railroads themselves are now
busy declaring, since the decision of
the supreme court in the routing case.
that they are friendly disposed toward
the citrus fruit growers and have no
present intention of taking advantage
of the power conferred upon them by
the supreme court. The presumption is.
of course, that if the growers will hold
off their convention of tomorrow or
minimize its proceedings and results,
the railroads will be good. This natur-
ally leads to the assumption that if the
citrus fruit growers make very loud
'holler" at tomorrow's convention, the
railroads will know how to deal with
their case.
A friendly disposition on the part of
the railroads is of course desired by the
valuable asset. But the people insist
upon that friendly disposition on fair
and equitable terms.
Giving the railroads absolute power
to do as they please with the crops and
then trusting to the friendliness of the
railroads to do the routing and fix the
rates is not fair. 1t is unbusinesslike,
and the railroads themselves would not
rest for a moment with their hands in
the lions mouth and trusting to the
good nature of the lion not to bite them
off.
AS The Herald understands the stu
alton, the conference of orange growers
tomorrow is not a populistic movement,
designed to voice a senseless or political
outcry against corporate monopolies,
but is rather a business conference,
designed to take immediate and the
most effective steps toward putting the
orange growers on an equal business
basis with the railroads. If the roads |
ter and easier for the success of the |
But whether they are or
are not will hardly interfere with the |
determination of the orange growers to |
urge upon congress and the president |
the enactment of some sort of law that |
will give the growers protection from |
the possible unfriendliness of the trans
portation companies.
Southern California has never been
rabid on the all absorbing question of
railway rates. 1t has taken its medi-
cine quietly and stood for the exac-
tons, in the hope that some day there
would be competing lines to adjust and
restore the equilibrium between crops
and freight schedules. They have waited
in vain. They have been patient to no
effect. When the railroads got ready
they formed a pooling agreement and
routed shipments as they pleased, at
any rate the traffic would bear. The
growers mildly protested and asked
protection from the interstate COM
merce commission. That body appealed
to the United States court of Cali
fornia for help and that court came
promptly to the rescue with a decision
that will go down in history for ap-
probation of the law and the equities
Of the case. The railroads appealed to
the supreme court of the United States,
he lower court and turned the people
back to a reliance upon the "friendli-
less" of the railroad companies.
These are the facts in the case.
Now the citrus fruit growers, finding
themselves in the power of the trans
companies, are not willing
% rest upon the absence of law, nor
content themselves with making terms ,
With the companies. They are in no
position to make terms. The railroads ,
ire now possessed of all the law and
Ill the power, and If the roads should
want to take all the profits of orange
growing in Southern California all they
reed do is to reach out their hands. .
There is now no court and no law to
lay them nay.
What should the citrus fruit growers
10? Sit on their thumbs and grin like =
/ Cheshire cat at the friendly DISPOSE
ion of the railroads? Not if they are
business men. Their duty is to agree
quickly upon the sort of law they need
whether of enlarged power to the
commerce commission or
special enactment to fit the case-and
AIRY the resolutions thus adopted di-
'ectly to Washington. In that line of ',
action only is there safety for the
growers and shippers.