California since the present State Constitution went into effect thirty
years ago. The Constitution empowers the Legislature to pass effective
railroad regulation measures, but up to the session of 1909, the
machine, or system, or organization - one name is as fragrant as another
- had prevented the passage, if we exclude the ineffective Act of 1880,
of any railroad regulation law at all. The machine has ever moved
against the interests of the people and in the interest of its
dominating factor and at the same time its chief beneficiary, the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company. It has so manipulated the nomination
and election of Railroad Commissioners as to keep in that office men
utterly dominated by railroad influences.

With weak and corrupt men as Railroad Commissioners, and
machine-dominated Legislatures which have neglected to pass laws which
would have made the Commission effective, or even provide funds for the
Commission to carry on its work, even had the Commissioners been so
inclined, California has been left helpless to oppose any extortion
which the railroad might see fit to exact. The system of charging all
that the traffic will bear has governed utterly. For this the Southern
Pacific Company can thank, and the People of California condemn, the
machine.

The cost to the people has been enormous. It was pretty conclusively
shown at the Legislative investigation into the cause of recent advance
of freight rates, that upwards of $10,000,000[62] a year has in this one
instance been added to the freight charges exacted from the people of
the Pacific Coast. The added burden falls upon the Pacific Coast
manufacturer, merchant, farmer, fruit grower, consumer. All from the
highest to the lowest help pay the tribute. Thirty years is a long
period, and the arm of the railroad tribute-taker far-reaching. The vast