Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-14
LOS ANGELES MERCHANTS
AND THE SOUTHERN
PACIFIC COMPANY

/
read the Associated Press dis
\ patches in yesterday mornings
papers which recite the results of the
rebate hearing now in progress before
the state board of railroad commits
sioners in San Francisco will under
stand one of the reasons why The Her
aid inaugurated the fight against the
iniquitous rebate system which the
Southern Pacific has, in defiance of law,
maintained in this state for years past.
Among other things the dispatch
stated:
1T was established that the
Pacific Hardware and Steel COM
pany and the Baker Hamilton
company of this city had been
granted half rate to Los An
geles to fill orders from branch
houses in competition with Los
Angeles firms
Our merchants will thus see that by
the criminal violation of the law
against rebating which the Southern
Pacific has been pursuing the natural
advantages which they have as to
serving certain territory have been and
are constantly neutralized in favor of
merchants of the city of San Fran
cisco, which city the Southern Pacific
has always for certain reasons of its
own played as favorite against Los
Angeles and other, cities on the Pacific
coast.
1t is not enough that by the control
which this law-breaking corporation
ing between California and Mexican
rorts Los Angeles merchants who de-
sire to send consignment of goods to
any Mexican port must pay, in addi-
ton to the steamship rate, the railroad
rate from Los Angeles to San Fran
cisco. To this unjust exaction (Which
we hope the merchants of Los Angeles
will some of these days be able to es-
cape by the establishment of a line of
vessels from our own port of San Pc
dro to Mexican ports) the Southern
Pacific is shown to have added in its
efforts to favor San Francisco the in
iuuity of granting rebates or special
rates to San Francisco merchants,
which enables them to.invade the ter
ritory legitimately belonging to the
merchants of Los Angeles.
The infamy of this particular form Of
favoritism is that merchants suffering
from it can have no idea how they are
being hurt, because it comes upon them
like an assassins stab in the dark.
They know that the natural territory
tributary to their city is being invaded
and taken from them, and yet they
cannot know how this is being done,
because the public service corporation,
whose duty it is under the law to treat
all shippers alike, is secretly discrimi-
mating in favor of shippers of San
Francisco and against shippers of Los
! Angeles into the territory supplied.
The. Herald has all along been sure
| tFat it could and probably would some
time be shown that the merchants of
Los Angeles were being made the vic
Tins of the Southern Pacific system of
rebates and special rates, and the testi-
mony adduced before the commission
ers in San Francisco appears to estab-
lish the correctness of The Herald's
opinion.
The Herald stands first, last and all
the time for Los Angeles and all of its
legitimate interests. Standing thus,
The Herald recognizes that as a Los
Angeles journal it can have no higher
mission that that OF defending the
merchants of the city in which it is
published from criminal and unjust ex-
actions and competition.
1t was with the idea of stopping these
illegal practices that The Herald was
tke first paper in the state of Califor-
mia to take up the fight against the
Southern Pacifics system of rebates
and special rates.
The Herald feels that it has a right
to call on the merchants and business
men of Los Angeles for assistance In
this contest which it proposes to con-
tinue to wage until the greatest and
most persistent law-defying corpora
tion of the United States has been
brought to a wholesome respect for the
law and an observance of its provis-
ions.