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Show Railroads and their Rights. The recent ruling of Judge- McKeaD in tbo suit of Page vs. the Central Facifio Kailroad Co., has created considerable con-siderable dboussioo in the journals of the Facihio Coast The" Pioohe "Record" eharply critioises the rulings of iho judge, aod makcB the stroDg point ibat a railway ticket is not a contract. The "Atlantic Monthly" for the current month contains a lengthy and carefully written article in denunciation denun-ciation of railway franchises, termed illegal exactions, in which the same view of the legal obligation of a passenger passen-ger ticket is taken, and the broad, and even logical, position maintained that tickets arc do moro contracts than the advertised time Echedules of the railway companies. But while we concur generally in these opinions, wo- do not coincide with the dictum dic-tum of tho rabid anti-railroad journals which can only see in the management of railway companies a set purpose to impose upon the public There should be a community of in terest between railroad companies and the public, and to this end it is essential essen-tial that the companies should have tho right to prescribe equitable regulations regula-tions as to the extent of ticket obligations. obliga-tions. The extreme view of such obligations obli-gations advocatod in the "Atlantic Monthly" and in the "Record" seem to ns to bo at variance with justice, and if recognized as law would load to constant confusion in the management of railroads. There moat be a limit to the prWilegea of a passenger ticket. If the are to bo held good forever, and in any direction, even directly against the terms published on their face, the inevitable result would be to discommode alike the public and the railway companies. With tickets,inde-feaaiblo tickets,inde-feaaiblo by any specification as to the duration of their validity, afloat in the community and made the subject of transfer and speculation, the companies ' could neither make stated settlements of their business, nor provide properly for the accommodation of the traveling travel-ing public Corporations are proverbially proverbi-ally held to be soulless, a sentiment so general that when their rights are under un-der discuseion, public opinion is prone to do them iojustioe. |