Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-12
MAXIMUM RATE
BILL IS FAVORED
RAILROADS TO SECURE MEAS
URE THEY DESIRE
ANGELENoS AND SAN DlEGAN
AID SOUTHERN PACIFIC
Father of Bill Which is Opposed to
Relief Sought by People OF
California in Peculiar
Predicament
tBy n staT correspondent

SACRA MET ~, MdICll D. lSinO e4'N
mercury in the thermometer, the ris-
ings and fallings of which are con-
trolled by the temperature, Senator
Wright has risen and fallen by de-
grees through the influence of opinion
and desire. This brief narrative may
help one to form conclusions as to-
whether the rising and falling of the
mercurial senator from San Diego has
been caused by public opinion and
public desire or by private opinion ana
private desire.
senator Wright came to Sacramento
adorned with the habiliments of Re
former with a capital r. He is going
to San Diego at the close of the session
wearing the livery Of a Performer, all
in capitals.
Probably no man on the floor of the
senate made louder protestations OF
freedom from the influence of selfish,
sordid interests than did the senator
from San Diego and the floor leader Of
the Republican majority during the
carly days of the session. He came
with his pocket bulging with big.
fat bill which, it was promised, would
go a long, long way toward the purlh-
cation of politics in the long boss,rid-
den state of California. He Will go
back to San Diego with the bulge in
his pocket no longer discernible; for
in the place of the big, fat direct pri-
mary bill, which gave such large prom
Use of putting the Southern Pacific po-
litical bureau out of business, there
will repose a thin, lean, fiat little bill
with an the wind knocked out of 1t.
But this is another story.
Menu: Shrimp salad, bouillon, chick
en- la crow. rum omelet (very rum),
cafe noir (very strong, especially
adapted for strengthening the nerves.
this. with an appropriate setting, oc-
cupied the space between Senator
Wright and Senator Wolfe in little
friendly jubilation at one of the lead
ing restaurants here an hour or two
after the joint victory of these gallant
defenders of the railroads maximum
rate" measure and the enemies of the
Stetson bill providing for the estab-
lishment of absolute rates.
Senator Wrights face looked pale
and drawn, for he has been one of the
most hard-worked members of the up
per house this session. Added to his
physical labors there has been tre-
mendous draft on his nervous forces,
due largely to i'll health and perhaps
in some measure to the strain of list
ening to that arrant enemy of the old
school politicians, Whim Populi.
His Vis-a-vis, who also has suffered
somewhat during the session by rea-
son of Illness. possibly due to the
shock to his nerves-or shall we say
nerve ?-looked happier than at any
other time during the session. His re-
sembance to RaphaePs Cherub was so
striking that it startled me. l knew 1t
was Wolfe, of course, but there was an
expression of delight--almost unal-
loved bliss-on his countenance that
has not been seen there before since
January 4.
Wolfe Is Happy
Wolfe was happy--and why should
he not be? For with the help of
Wright and our own Mccartney, Saw
age and Hurd, had not he and Leavitt
succeeded in rending the vitals of one
of the greatest and most desirable
pieces of legislation whose enactment
ever has been attempted in the history
of California?
Senator Stetson's bill, as have said.
and as every newspaper reader i'll CAL
ifornia who takes any interest what
ever in railroad legislation now knows,
provides for the establishment of what
is known as absolute. or fixed. freight
rates for the railroads. Wright's bill,
the direct antithesis of the Stetson
measure, provides for the establish
ment of what are known as maximum
freight rates. namely, rates above
which the railroads may not go in their
charges against shippers.
The railroads do not want the Stet-
son bill. They do want the Wright bill.
And to every twentieth century Zac-
cheus in Sacramento it looks now as II
their desires were to be eratlhed. That
certain "huiditv of rates. for which
Peter Dunno. the soothsayer of the
Southern Pacific railroad. contended SO
eloouently on the occasion of one or
the first public hearings on the rail-
road measures, now appears 10 pe
foregone conclusion. With fluiditv OF
rates permitted by law. it does not re-
ouire the most sagacious mind i'll Cali
fornia To comprehend the fact that re-
bates will be as legal as it is possible
for a legislature to make them.
Nobody will accuse Senator Wolfe
and Senator Leavitt of acting as the
result of an error in judgment in con-
sideration of measures Vltally aHect-
ing the great TRANSPORTATION company
whose regulation is engineered bv Will
liam F Herrin. 1t NAV be. however
that it is through an error of judgment
that Senate Wright cast his lines IN
temporarily pleasant places. just how
pleasant he may find his own political
attitude in the future will depend en-
tirely on the length of the memory OF
his onstituents-perhap of the people
of the whole state;'sfor there is cur
rent talk that Senator Wright aspires
to the post now filed by Frank z.
Flint. -.
Mccartney, Savage. Hurd and Willis
the voters of Los Angeles should keep
fresh in their memory the names OF
these four senators who voted against
the consideration of a measure which
would give to the people of the state
some relief from the oppression of the
railroads.
Three of these senator's represent Los
Angeles county. The fourth. Willis. IS
planning to make Los Angeles ms
home. where, it may be, he will seek
future political honors.
The memory of the people has been
short in the past. The time has come
when some system for stretching II
should be devised.
The people of Los Angeles county
cannot remember too long the splen-
did record that has heen made thus far
nv our Senator Bell and Senator
Thompson, who. in the face of the tre-
nendous influences that have been ex-
erted at Sacramento this wear as in
the past, have stood like Gibraltar. re-
sistine every effort that has been made
to dislodge them from the positions
thew occupv as champions of the rights
of the people.
Gonoez Gets Four Months