New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-01
Sleir erka,ss gepnbliea,s.
0fFlCIAt JOURNAL OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF new ORLEANS


Mr. Speaker, q few weeks since the
House, by resolution, instructed the Com
mittee on Cemmere to inquire whether the
commerce among the several States OF this
Union is injuriously affected by any made
Quacy in the present means of land trans
portation, or BY any combination or monOp-
oily in the control or ownership thereof, or
BY means of any excessive or inequitable
rates Of freight or fare charged by common
carriers, or by means Of other improper bur
dens or restraints imposed upon such COM
merce by carriers"
This Is subject of Importance to the
whole country, and Of vital interest TO the
people have the honor to represent: re-
fer to q district in the interior OF Iowa,
aeparate from the large rivers on either side,
and In which the chief interest IS agrlcui-
ture iowa is eminently grain producing
State. As shown by the last monthly re-
port from the Department OF Agriculture,
that State ranks above all others in her ca
pacity TO produce corn, coats and barley, and
stands high in respect to other products OF
the farm; while, as shown by the same
report, the extreme Southern States rank
lowest in this respect. In Iowa, the aver
age Weld Of corn last year was 42.5 bushels
per acre; oats, ALI; barley, 1916 For the
same year the average yield Of corn in Lou
isiana is. given at l4.4 bushels per acre, and
other States on the lower Mississippi about
the same. The same report gives the aver
age price of corn in Iowa last year at TWEEN
ty-three cents per bushel, while in Louisiana
it was one dollar and twenty-five cents.
Iowa should therefore offer extra induce
ments to farmers The soil is rich and pro-
ducdve. The surface is gently undulating,
thus enabling the farmer to use labOr-sav-
ing machinery. Only small per cent OF
the land is untillable, and two grand rivers
How past her borders, to float the grain to
q Southern market, where, as we have
seen, the same can not be produced, and is
therefore in greatest demand. But you
win be surprised to hear that the papers OF
central Iowa, on lines of railroad running
east and west, where there is no choice OF
market other than Chicago and the East,
are quoting corn st fifteen to twenty cents
per bushel. Why is thisa Why, in that
land SO favored by nature, do farmers
stand on the streets with wagons laden
with grain, and beg for buyers? Why are
they oppressed with debt, when the har-
vest has been so bOuntlful, and while five
lines Of railroad cross the State. connect
ing all sections with the great rivers that
were designed by nature as highways for
the commerce of that fruitful country9
The answer, Mr. Speaker, is found in the
fact that the railroads are in the hands Of
parties Interested in the growth of Chicago
and Eastern cities; and their schedules Of
rates are SO framed that it costs only o
fraction less to ship bushel of grain from
4 point in the interior of Iowa to the river,
than from the same point to Chicago. And
4 in this way we are deprived of the cheap
) ffeiehts that otherwise would be afforded
by the river.
Take point on one of the eastern and
western roads in Iowa, and you will find
the charges almost as much from there to
the river as from the same point to Chicago,
three to five times as far. The effect of
this unfair discrimination is to compel the
farmers to ship their grain to Chicago or
convert it into live stock, and in either case
il tho remedy? Partial relief may, and
doubtless will be found in the construction
Of ship-canal around Niagara Falls, and
the opening of water communication from
the Mississippi river to the Atlantic sea-
board, via the lakes and the st. Lawrence.
In my Judgment, however, the only way to
give speedy and effective relief is in the
passage Of a bill providing that railroads
shall be limited to reasonable rates, on local
charges at least.
Has Congress the power 70 enter on such
legislation9 ls there necessity! The con-
BtitutiOn declares in express terms that
sCOngress shall have power to regulate
commerce among the several States" and
we have eminent legal authority for the
statement that the right to regulate com
merce implies the right to regulate the
meansO of commerce, and even the persons
engaged therein. We should also bear in
mind. that railroads, as a means of COM
merce, have come into general use since the
formation of the constitution. Mr.. Justice
Miller, in the Clinton bridge case, as found
In volume two, United States Circuit Court
Reports, page 80, says:
ANY means by which passengers aud
merchandise are transported is an element
of commerce.
This has been repeatedly held in respect
of navigation, and Congress has legisla+ed
ON the subject accordingly.
The railroad, as much as the steamboat,
IL means of interchangiDg persons and
property, which interchange is commerce
ftnAlf
"When railroads become portions of the
great highways of our Union, acting an i'm
p0rtant part in q commerce which embraces
many States, to regulate them is to regulate
Commerce.
.In this view of the subject Congress has
passed statutes regulating steamboats,,
their construction, equipment, officers and
crews, prescribing qualifications of pilots
and engineers, limiting the number of pas
seDgers they may carry, and prescribing
the signals they shall use in passing each
other; in short it has established minute
code for building and navigating those YES
sells. The right to do this depends wholly
on the power vested in Congress to regu-
late commerce, and has never been dis
puted.
Navigation, however, is one of the ele
ments of commerce. 1t is an element of
commerce because it affords the means of
transporting passengers and merchandise,
the interchange of which is commerce itself.
Any other mode of efecting this would be
a. much an element Of commerce as navi-
CATION"
Another means of transportation, equal
in importance to the steamboat, has also
come into existence since the constitution
was adopted. By it merchandise is trans
ported across States and kingdoms in the
same vehicle in which it started The rail
road now shares with the steamboat the
monopoly Of the carrying trade. The one
has, with great benefit, been subjected to
the control Of salutary congressional legis-
latiOn. Is there any reason why the other
should not BET However this question may
be answered in regard to that commerce
which is conducted wholly within the limits
Of State, and which is, therefore, neither
. foreign commerce, nor commerce among
the States, it seems to me that when these
roads become parts of the great highways
OF our Union, acting an important part in
commerce which embraces many States,
and destined, AS some of these roads are, to
become the channels through which the
nations of Europe and Asia shall inter
change their commodities, there can be no
reason to doubt that to regulate them is to
regulate commerce both with foreign ma
tions and among the States. and that to re-
fuse to do this is q refusal to discharge one
Of thesmOst important duties of the federal
government. As already intimated, the
shackles with which the different States
fettered commerce in their selfish efforts to
benefit themselves at the expense OF their
was one OF the main causes
which led to the formation of our present