was higher in the measure proposed in 1907 than in that passed at the
session of 1909, but it was the principle of demurrage, not its amount,
that the machine was against in 1907. In 1909, however, not a Senator
voted against the bill. And in this connection there is a story told
which unquestionably had its bearing upon the fate of the Reciprocal
Demurrage bill at the 1909 session. The story deals with a political
adventure in the life of one Henry Lynch.

Mr. Lynch voted against reciprocal demurrage in 1907. He voted neither
for nor against reciprocal demurrage in 1909, for he was not at
Sacramento to vote. Mr. Lynch was not at Sacramento to vote in 1909, for
one reason at least, because he did vote against reciprocal demurrage in
1907.

Mr. Lynch hailed from the Thirty-first Senatorial District, which takes
in San Benito and San Luis Obispo counties. These counties are intensely
Republican; they are also farming communities. And since the one-time
Senator Lynch voted against the Reciprocal Demurrage bill, the farmers
have seen tons upon tons of their products rot in the fields because
they could not get cars to move their crops.

But while the farmers of San Luis Obispo and San Benito counties were
watching their products rot for want of cars to move them, it is alleged
that cars were being sent from California to Oregon to meet the
requisitions of Oregon shippers. Oregon had a reciprocal demurrage law
on her statute books; California had not.

Senator Lynch's vote against the Reciprocal Demurrage bill was made a
sort of issue in San Benito and San Luis Obispo counties at the election
of 1908. A. E. Campbell, Democrat, was running against Mr. Lynch,