The Ballot Initiative Returns to its Progressive, Populist Roots

For much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company ruled California. Known as “the Octopus” by those who feared it, its tentacles extended across 14,000 miles of track and expertly guided the hands of the state’s political leaders.

It helped that Leland Stanford, California’s eighth governor, was a railman, having invested in the incipient Central Pacific Railroad. After leaving office, Stanford acquired Southern Pacific with his partners, bringing Central under its umbrella and serving as president of both. Over the course of its reign, the railroad’s sweeping influence won it 11.6 million acres of federal land grants (helping it cover more than 10 percent of the state); and almost $60 million in railroad bonds.