D. B. HOUGH, lumber dealer at Dixon, Solano County, was sworn, and made the following statement:

I wish to say a few words in regard to the Archer bill and the California Pacific Railroad. Since the Archer bill has passed the Assembly it has been the all-absorbing topic of conversation throughout. Yolo and Solano Counties, counties through which the California. Pacific road runs. The farmers and business men have read and examined the bill, and they thoroughly understand the effect it must have upon the road. Of course you will readily perceive, by reading the seventh and eighth classes mentioned in the bill, that no road could be operated through that country, where the principal business is the transportation of grain and lumber. My business is shipping lumber, and the bill will reduce the freights on the article from two dollars to one dollar per ton for carriage to Vallejo from Dixon, a distance of thirty-nine miles. On that part of the road there is a heavy grade just this side of Vallejo a grade so steep that going east one locomotive can pull but eleven cars, going west fourteen cars. The present prices suit me, and I do not ask a change. The

people on the line of that road have become greatly alarmed in regard to this matter, and I was requested by them to come here and make this statement. Two years ago this spring, farmers from Dixon, Davisville, Woodland and Vacaville, held a meeting, and, thinking the rates charged by the railroad to be too high, sent a delegation to San Francisco to try and get them lowered. They were lowered, and are satisfactory to all the parties concerned. Since that time there has been no complaint from them. They have built large warehouses at Woodland, Davisville, and Dixon, for the storing of grain, and are very content to pay the rates asked of them. They are becoming alarmed for fear this bill may pass, thus ruining their chances of prosperity for some time to come, being fully satisfied that if the bill becomes a law the railroad cannot be worked.

Mr. Farley Who requested you to come here?
A.-Business men and farmers of the two counties.
Q-How many?

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A.-Nearly all the grain shippers and a great number of farmers. It is the town and country talk at the present time, and all condemn the bill. I will state that I have not conversed with any man connected with the railroad company on this subject, and was not requested to come here by the railroad company. I never had anything in common with the company other than shipping my goods over the road. I have not been nor am I in their employ. My standing in the community is well known, and I refer you to Senators McCune and Hilborn, both from my county.

Mr. Cohen then reiterated his statement that Stubb's figures were incorrect, and asked the committee to examine the authorities already submitted by him. He repeated his history of the California Pacific Railroad, and his statement that the road could be built for $2,500,000; that the first managers were dishonest and corrupt, and that through their dishonest practices it had been sunk so deeply in debt that the sum now was nearly $12,000,000. Roads like that of Mr. Donahue were profitable, for there was a profit, even though it was expended in building and equipping more road. All that was invested was not the less gain, because it went towards building more road.

Mr. DonahueI understood Mr. Cohen to state that the road of which I am President had paid no profit, according to my statement. I said not so. I said that I had never got a dollar from it, but that, besides all the earnings of the road, I had put in it all my income from other sources.

Mr. Farley-Have you received any aid from the Government in constructing your road?

A.-No, sir; not a cent-never. It is most astonishing to me to find Mr. Cohen here making any statement in reference to my road or any other railroad, from the fact that he himself has been in the business from an early day, and while in it I believe got all he could from the people for fares and freights-squeezed out the last cent. He sold his railroad and ferry to the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and I always supposed that the trade was mutually agreeable, until I learned in conversation with the gentleman himself that he was not satisfied. I said, "It is very strange if you have remained in the employ of the Central Pacific Railroad Company ever since. You have run together for a long time, and although I don't know what

Mr. Donahue-I think it is. This is a work to which I am giving my full attention, and I am pressing it now with all diligence, and I don't want to be injured in my rights of property and profit because of the malice existing between this individual and the company.! He is prosecuting this bill purely from malice, in the name of the people of the State→→→→→

Mr. Farley-As I said before, this is not a proper subject for us to consider.

Mr. Donahue-It affects me, I say. This persecution of railroad interests affects me directly, and I don't want to be made to suffer because there is a disagreement between Cohen and the company.

Mr. Cohen-I said nothing improper of Mr. Donahue. I merely spoke of his road in connection with gross earnings as compared to profits.

Mr. Farley-I will permit no more discussion on the subject. It is not proper for this time and place.

to Mr. Cohen That is quite proper. My relations with the Central Pacific Railroad Company are not in place here.

The company have selected another tribunal, and I will meet them there or elsewhere. My motives are not to be considered in determining this question. I ask the committee to determine whether the measure is just or not, and that alone. The motives of the man who presses a righteous bill should not affect that bill in the least.

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