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own selfish advantage. Of course all this is in harmony with human 

 nature. But what we are considering now is what is to the advantage 

 of the producer? What shall he do in the face of this universal tend- 

 ency of all interests to combine for their own advantage? The pro- 

 ducer is at the greatest disadvantage. He cannot effect a combination. 

 If he allows himself to be bound hand and foot by these combinations 

 of capital he is ruined. Of course we know that the multiplication of 

 railroads has facilitated intercourse among the producers. And I may 

 be told that freight rates have been reduced from time to time. That 

 is very true; but it is because of industrial improvements. When 

 Bessemer 's steel rails sold for $100 a ton, of course it cost more to trans- 

 port freight than it does now when they can be bought for $15 a ton. 

 And the reduction of freights is attributable to improvements rather 

 than to the multiplication of railways or their competition. I do not 

 think any one here in California will spend any time in arguing the 

 necessity for some relief for the internal traffic of the State of California. 

 The necessity for that relief has been felt for twenty-five or thirty years. 

 It is not in the nature of things that we can stand these burdens for- 

 ever. They will overwhelm us. This proposition is a feasible one. 

 There are now forty-two countries that either own or control their rail- 

 roads. In fact, there are more countries that control their railroads 

 than there are that do not. So this proposition is no new thing. State 

 ownership of railroads has contributed more to the prosperity of certain 

 districts, very much like our own, than any other single agency. The 

 prosperity attending that movement in New Zealand is certainly greater 

 than that of any other portion of the earth's surface to-day. You all 

 know the history of the construction of the New York and Erie Canal. 

 That was hotly contested, "but it was finally carried; and I think that 

 it stands on record to-day as one of the wisest things that the people of 

 New York ever did. It may not be wise for our people to build this 

 road and operate it. Perhaps it may. But I would go this far: I 

 would have the State build a line of track for the districts through 

 these great valleys, where the track can be most inexpensively laid, and 

 I would have it opened as a high-road to all the railways that desire to 

 reach our goods, desire to act as common carriers for us, upon payment 

 of a suitable toll. There will then be means for self-protection to the 

 producers of California. 



Mr. Wilcox: The building of the canal was all right at first, but it 

 was not long before it became a mighty engine of political power. The 

 same results would follow here, and the taxpayers would find, too late, 

 that they had saddled a burden on the State which they could not 

 shake off. 



Mr. Motheral: Something must be done to save our industrial 

 population. It is not a question of politics or of fancy policy, but a ques- 

 tion of absolute life to the industrial portion of California. It is non- 

 sense to talk about the building of new roads by individual enterprise. 

 The rule of the survival of the fittest operates in all such cases, and 

 that rule is a barbaric rule. It means the destruction of the weak by 

 the strong. There is another law which humanity has always insisted 

 upon ignoring, and that is altruism, or looking out for the other fellow 

 who lies at the bottom of society. The road can certainly be built and 

 operated if other countries can own their roads. There is no use of 



