Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-20
RAILROAD TYRANNY

IANE of the most fragrant instances
IvB of squeeze" ever attempted by
| ~ the railroads is about to be put
into effect right here in Los Angeles in
the immediate future, unless timely ap-
peal to the interstate commerce COM
mission can check it.
For months-and years for that mat
ter-the lumbermen of the northwest
found it impossible to obtain cars for
the shipment of their product to the
east, and seeing three through lines led
east out of Los Angeles decided to ship
all lumber here by coastwise steamer
and send it to the east via the Santa
Fe, Salt Lake or Southern Pacific. Sew.
eral lumber steamers were chartered,
and the ports of San Pedro, Redondo
and adjacent shipping points are now
crowded with lumber en- route to the
eastern market, and several sail of
ships are at anchor in the bays, await
ing an opportunity to discharge lumber
cargoes intended to seek the same
market.
Now comes the railroad trickster to
squeeze all concerned, and presumably
calls a meeting of other roads, and
these roads at once advance the rates
121s per cent to eastern markets for
lumber shipped from Southern Califor-
MIA, and there we have the Squeeze"
There is no possible tenable reason for
the advance unless it be in retaliation
for the move to get ahead of the roads
in the matter of cars, and as there is
good reason to believe that the rail-
roads are not sincere in the reasons
they give for car shortage in the north
west the fact of intended retaliation or
reprisal stands out clearly.
| This case touches the interests of
the whole people, as these coastwise
freights not only bring business and
labor to our doors, but tend to hold
local prices for lumber at a fair figure,
and these are things we cannot afford
to lose; and the fact that these same
roads claim to be friendly to local bus
mess interests should cut some figure
in the matter, unless the claim is like
that made in relation to car shortage;
trick Of expediency and wholly in
sincere.
The act as a whole is downright
tyranny and challenges every line Of
business in the city to defend these
lumber men or forfeit our good name
laboriously earned and jealousy
guarded for thirty years. Why should
rates rise just now? Why do they rise
in similar ratio on all three roads
Why on lumber alone? Why from Los
Angeles alone? These questions must
merce commission. and the answers
will be good reading, productive of
thought on the part of the people and
helpful to educate them to the fact
that railroads are built, manned and
maintained to squeeze all the traffic
will bear out of the people-if the
people will tamely submit thereto.
From Los Angeles the cry goes out
all over the world that we are a free
and happy people extending to all men
an urgent invitation to come and set
tie here because of the favors of nature
and the wise laws of men, yet here we
face a contemplate trick of corpor-
ate greed, so fragrant and mean as to
challenge all the tyrannous acts known
to the long and bitter reign of traffic
extortion- that has marked railroad
dominance in the state, and but for
possible injunction we would be
helpless.
Let some of the enthusiasm of the
booster" element be turned in this
direction and save the good name of
the men who make promises in the
name of Los Angeles from being a
byword to outsiders. Railroad tyranny
is odious and repellent to free and
prosperous people.