Year: 1872

/ - Oeso AohSicOOs out buc Ddu IdQClSct


Bulletin and Sacramento Union opposed


the passage of the bill with all the energ,
they possessed.


Every expedient was resorted to, to de
feat the bill, and after it had passed tn


Senate it was killed in the Assembly. Th


clamor against it was that three hundre,


acres was much more than was necessar


for terminal purposes for the two roads,
| These roads were to be l 500 milesin lengtl
| besides their connection with two overlan,


routes, and were to meet the commerce o


the Pacific at the water line After thi


reasonable proposition was howled dowl


and beaten, sixty acres of tide land in Mis-


sion Bay were granted to these companis


which were to be located by a commission


who were forbidden by the terms of tn


law to locate it within 900 feet of the es


tablished water front of the city, thus de


feating the only thing in which the peo
pie were interested. This fight against th,


railroad reaching deep water seems incred


ible. Bnt state simply the history of th,


struggle. Do not ask me to explain th,


motives which led to this lame and impo


tent conclusion. I can only tell you th.
facts.


The reason assigned could net have beer
the true one, for the very man who made
this objection came in at about the sam.


time and procured the passage of anothe,
bill in favor of another company called the
Terminal Pacific Railway Company" who
pretended they we're going to construct a
railroad from the Straits of Carquinez to
Goat Island.


That road had for its champion Judge
Hagar, Democratic State Senator from
San Francisco who was one of the gentle
men sent on to Washington last Spring to
demonstrate against the passage of the Goat
Island bill. He offered in the State Sem
ate during the terminal struggle of 1868 a
bill to grant to this thirty mile paper rail-
road three hundred and sixty acres of tide
land on the shores of Goat Island, and
three hundred feet of right of way for a
causeway to the main land. The Sacra-
mento Union assisted in the advocacy of
this little scheme to give the shoals of
Goat Island to fabulous railroad. On
the 18th day of March that fair-minded
journal in leading editorial, earnestly
urging the passage of the little job says,
"The encouragement asked from the State
is moderate. We ask for this bill favor
able hearing" and the great and good
Bulletin talks as though it were mistaken
either then or now in it, estimate of the
Goat Island question.


The Bulletin in 1868 said att Goat
Island is the natural terminus of the over
land railroad. The road must eventually
follow tie direct and nearest route, and
come to Goat Island simply because Goat
Island is virtually San Francisco"


Knowing Judge Hagar's course and re-
membering that the Union and Bulletin
were his hackers and bottle holders, do YOU
think it strange that l could not look up
to him or them with confidence for counsel
on the subject of Goat Island Nor could
| believe they were honest in saying that
bridge on piers three hundred feet apart
would injure the harbor, when they SO re-
Gently urged that solid causeway would
benefit it. Their bill was 40 generous
toward the State that it provided this land
should not be sold for less than $500 an
acre. The scheme was pushed through
the Legislature and signed by Gov. Haight,
but the amount granted was reduced to one
hundredsand fifty acres and the right of
way for the causeway to two hundred and
fifty feet in width. The company you will
remember, to which this grant was made
on. such terms, only proposed to build
road thirty miles in length and had not at
the time, and has not yet laid single rail
or bought car. As 1 have said the Bul-
letin spoke in praise of the law, and was
highly elated that Goat Island. was likely
to become a great railway terminus 1t
never occurred to that paper or the Union
that thirty miles of road could be accom-
modated by less than $50 acres, nor did
they then fear that solid causeway would
ruin the harbor of San Francisco. But
$50 acres each for the Southern and West
ern Pacific companies to be paid for at its
market value was too much. Was this hon.
est Do you believe the peoples welfare
was consulted by such course Is it
not plain to you that these who defeated
the efforts Of the two great companies to
reach deep water had an axe to grind, or
some grudge to crafty at the expense OF the
farmers accommodation Would it have
been any favor to the Reilroad Company
to have sold them some land for what it is
worth and would such sale have been a
subsidy? The friends of the Union and
Bulletin who had obtained the Goat Island
grant sold outshortly afterwards to the Gen.
trail Pacific for something near quarter of
a million dollars. Did the Union and
Bulletin badger and beat the Central Pa
cifc railroad company and the farmers of
this State from the San Francisco water
front in order that that company might be
forced to Goat Island and be compelled to
buy out the friends of those persons who
had got there before them in order to sell
out to them? Does not this tell the story?
Attributing improper motives to an oppo-
nent is something 1 abhor. But it would
be crime against logic not to draw this
inference from the facts. Tho railroads
unable to buy a'water front in the city.
made terms with the authorities OF Oak
land and extended their Western Pacific
road along the east side of the bay to that
city The shoal water then forced them
to construct wharyes far out into the bay