Chemin de fer

“Opportunity Knocksâ€: A Broadside Concerning the “Unmerger†of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads

1922 · List2831 — Sacramento California 1922. 17 ½ x 24 inches. Folded small tears at folds overall excellent. In 1922 the United States Supreme Court decided United States v. Southern Pacific Company et al. declaring the Southern Pacific Company’s ownership of a controlling part—46%—of the Central Pacific Railroad’s stock in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and requiring that this monopoly be dissolved. Offered here is a broadside produced by the Sacramento-based California Producers & Shippers Association which presents a collection of articles and editorials from area newspapers favorable to this “unmerger.â€<br /> <br /> The broadside came in response to the Southern Pacific Company’s propaganda campaign against the dissolution; the Sacramento Tribune draws the reader’s attention to:<br /> <br /> “the efforts which have recently been made by the Southern Pacific Company to deceive their employees into protesting the separation of the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific on the ground that seniority and pension rights would be disturbedâ€. August 25<br /> <br /> Several articles present a statement by P.R. Thompson chairman of the Peninsula Bureau Chamber of Commerce’s Transportation Committee who accused Southern Pacific of having “distributed a great amount of misinformation intended to becloud the issue and create oppositionâ€. Thompson called the claim that employees would lose seniority and pension rights the “Most flagrant and most apparently manufactured out of whole cloth.†Other articles note that Southern Pacific had been sending delegates to various Chambers of Commerce around the region to push resolutions against the dissolution. The Porterville Messenger writes:<br /> <br /> “Chambers of Commerce are becoming suspicious of the sleek well mannered business like gentlemen who drop into town urge a meeting of directors make their discourse and expect to depart with a resolution in their pockets. Usually the proposed resolution will bear study— carefully. Just now the Colusa Chamber of Commerce is compelled to reverse itself on the S.P.-C.P. unmerger.†August 25<br /> <br /> The Sacramento Bee described the efforts of these delegates as an “attempt to stampede public sentiment†but claimed that Company’s “flood of propaganda†had “utterly failed of its objective†September 9.<br /> <br /> Whatever the actual public sentiment may have been in 1923 the Interstate Commerce Commission ordered that the railroads be allowed to remain merged. That year the federal government—largely influenced by famously anti-labor Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty—declined to appeal a district court decision overruling the Supreme Court in favor of the ICC. We find no record of this broadside in OCLC. Of interest to scholars of railroad business and legal history. unknown