Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1869-10-22

II eht upon unjust discrimination BY rail.
roads, and the power of the legislature to
restrain them. They will we'll repay Pc
rusal by almost all classes of readers:
The grant Of charter TO railway, is
held to he in the nature of contract, the
moving consideration to which on the part
of the Legislature is the promotion of the
public good and the essential franchise
granted, is, the right to construct and oper-
ate load, and charge and collect reason
able tolls. In such y contract there must
always be implied an obligation to use the
franchise and corporate privileges in such
a manner as not to defeat the consideration
of public benefit, and the power to guard
| against abuse of the latter kind by remedial
legislation is necessarily reserved to the
State.
1t will not do to say that the right to
charge and collect tolls is an Unlimited
one; in the very nature of things, this
right must be restrained within reasonable
| limits, and the power must exist some
where Of regulating it, so as to eHectua ly
guard the rights and interests of the public.
| In the ordinary avocations of life where no
special or exclusive privileges are granted,
natural persons cannot be controlled by
| legislative interference in regard to the rea-
sonableness Of their charges open compe
tilion regulates all that matter, but on the
| line Of q railway, where the right to charge
and collect tolls is vested by legislative
grant exclusively in the company, remedial
| legislation becomes as necessary to protect
the public from the imposlti of unreason-
| able or discriminating rates, US from every
other form of abuse, and Just in proportion
as the courts recognize these just limita-
tons upon the privileges of corpor. tons
will the public welfare in their creation be
| msintaiLel.
| We know from experience that railroad
| companies may be guilty Of an abuse of
privilege, by the unreasonabeness of their
rates. In Iowa there exists a particular
| form of this abuse, from which the commu-
nifty suffers special damage; aud that is
the system of discriminating against termi-
nal POINTS on the river, which in fac! inju-
ri ly affects The whole State. Every ship
per and business man readily understands
this, but it is the farmer upon whom me
burden chiefly fills, that ought to De the
no. sensible Of it. For instance the prac
tee is common upon all TIE loads crossing
the State, % take ear load Of wheat or
other produce al any point west Of the riv-
er, and Dill II through to Chicago for very
considerably lower rates than they will car
ry II 10 the river; and the same upon re-
turn Heights. especially lumber and salt.
The discrimination upon wheat usually
; amounts to eight or tel cents per bust
against the river towns, and against ii e
river market; thus discouraging fair con.
:, petition, aud encouraging monopoly a; the
| expense Of our own oLle. The direct
! effect of such Discrimination IS, to tax for
the benefit of railroads every bushel OF
wheat from the interior that seeks market
| by way of the river. Such regulations ai-
| feet commerce, and are designed to give
preference to the ports of one State, over
| those of another, and are in violation of
the spirit of the federal constitution, if not
of its letter. See Art. l, Sec. 8, Constitu-
ton of U. s. In this manner railroad
companies indirectly exercise power that
is expressly denied to Congress. The ques
ton however arises whether Congress may
not nterpose under the clause that confers
upon it power to regulate commerce among
the States.
1t is claimed that through freight can be
carried at lower rates than local freight;
this may be measurably true, but it will
account for very small part Of the differ
tence that is made between local and through
Heights on railroads connecting at the Mis-
sissippi River and terminating at Chicago.
For instance the present carrying rate for
wheat by rail from Waterloo on the line of
the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad, to
Chicago, is forty-three cents per hundred
pounds Over the same line of road, from
The same starting point, it is twenty-five
cents to Dubuque, and thirty.one cents
thence to Chicago, OR fifty-six cents in all
making a discrimination of thirteen
cents per hundred pounds on wheat, our
leading staple, against Dubuque and in
tie Illinois Central Railroad has received
wheat by the river at Dunleith, opposite
Dubuque, from points above, and carried
it thence to Chicago as low as ten cents per
bushel, or for about the same as the dis
elimination they make against Dubuque.
This same sort of discrimination is prac-
ticed at every other point on the river
where the roads of Iowa are run in con
nection with through lines 10 Chicago.
The truth is, that all the roads across
Iowa are operated in connection with roads
extending to Chicago and the tariff rates
are fixed to suit the latter place on outgo-
ing and incoming freishts, to the manifest
injury Of communities in our own State and
against the river as competing line. We
are by this system compelled to pay bo
nus to consolidated railroad lines, that
tends to retard the growth and development
of o,r prnlucinr and commercial iutaractr
/. is tax upon commerce, eXacted in the
interests of burdensome monopoly, and
an abuse "that gives privilege to the
ports of one State over those of another"
and comes clearly within the province Of the
legislature to correct.
No one questions the validity of laws
that compel railroad companies to fence
their tracks, to provide cattle guards and
signals at the crossings of common roads.
and to observe every useful precau;ion for
the safety of life and property, even to the
regulation Of tie rate OF speed. Why not
then in consideration Of the special, exclu-
sye, and extraordinary privileges granted
them, protect the public by tie same sort
of remedial legislation from the imposition
of partial or excessively Discriminating
tolls? TIE relative rates between through
and local freight is so outrageous,y exag-
gerated upon lines of road that have their
connections with Chicago, that where other
expedien,s fail to prevent the abuse, the
legislature would be justiiiabe in prohibit
ING all discrimination, and might even ex-
ercls2 the power, within reasonable limits
If regulating the rates Of toll altogether, as
has already claimed the right to do, in
the celebrated Doud amendment to the
railroad legislation of the last session.
True we cannot by our legislation re-
strict roads in Illinois, but we can prohibit
our own roads when connecting with roads
from her States, from imposing heavier
tolls within Iowa than the through rates
charged over connecting lines in adj lining
States. In other words, upon the Clinton
aud Cedar Rapids road upon the Rock
Island aud Pacific road upon the Bur
ington ard Missouri River road upon the
McGregor Western road and upon every
other road of the State of Iowa connecting
with coterminous lines of railroad from
neighboring States, the legislature can say
that no greater rates of freight shall be i'm |
posed for transportation from points in
Iowa, to the place of connection with such !
cote rninous lines, than is charged on
through freights over said lines to Chicago |
or other terminal points in neighborine
States