Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-03
INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
The Power of the Federal Gov
eminent Over Railroads.

"a, 1874, ON the Bill 10 Regulate
Commerce by Railroads I'm the Sew.
Eeral states,
Mr.. Speaker, no graver question has ever
agaited the councils of the nation than the
one presented in the consideration Of the
present bill. The laboring masses of the
| country rightfully have conceived that the
fruits of their industry are being controlled
and tithed with unjust tribute TO classes
who have been favored in the grant of spe-
cial privileges by the legislation of the GOV
eminent. 1t is proposed by the authors OF
the present bill to redress this grievance by
the methods suggested in the bill. What
are the methods of relief proposed? Stated
in brief, they are: that the President of the
United States shall appoint a commission of
nine persons, whose duty it shall be to
adopt and fix rates of transportation to be
charged by all railroads engaged in interstate
commerce, and may from time to time
change and revise any schedule of rates they
may adopt. These officers are subject to
removal by the President, and the only
qualification required of them is that they
shall be residents of the different judicial
circuits of the United States, and be disin-
terested. Any charge Of rates beyond those
fixed by the commission is declared unlaw-
A0ts 0Ad P0AAAoAlC0 W A1C, Cl(-f 0AiACoo IAC
company can afiirmatively show that the
charge is reasonable. The commission is
to be continued as a bureau of railroad
statistics, with a secretary. All these are
salaried officers.
An examination of the bill shows that it
is claimed by its authors that an agency or
party distinct from the shipper and the car
rier may intervene { o regulate the terms of
the contract of shipment between them. 1t
is alleged that the right and authority to do
so is derived from the power expressly on
ferTed upon Congress by section s, article !,
of the Constitution, which is granted in
these words:
and among the several States, and with the In
dian tribes.
/ adopt here the words Of the report of
the majority Of the committee, when l say
that '.in considering the question whether
under this provision Congress has power to
pass the bill reported, it will be necessary
to inquire as to the nature and extent of
the power conferred thereby upon Con-
gress." In so doing l do not care to ex-
anime the Judicial decisions; they have
been ably dissected and canvaSsed by my
learned friends from Kentucky [Mr. Arthur
and from Illinois, mfr. Eden-J Itis suffi-
eient to say that the precise question has
not been raised before, OF decided by the
courts. The nature and extent of this
power is, then, an open question before the
people and the courts.
Looking to the history of thea adoption of
this grant of power, and TO the circumstan-
ces that made it necessary, as well the
practices and legislation of the Government
since its formation down to the present
time, none of which is it pretended shows
that suchan exercise of it as is claimed by
this bill was ever attempted or submitted
for action, it would seem that we would be
warranted in giving as the true construction
and meaning of these words, "to regulate
commerce among the States" h accepted
one heretofore, that is, hat it was intended
TO secure Stree commerce" among the
States, and that Congress was invested
alone with the power to remove any OBJ
struction or impeachment thereto. But it is
said that the extension and multiplication
of RAILROADS and their uses in the carrying
trade, and especially among the States, has
made the exercise of this power necessary,
and that the grant is express in its terms.
Does the power TO regulate mean the
power to control, to give life or death?
Does the power to regulate mean that you
may appropriate fhe service or property of
the citizen to the uses and interests OF the
public without direct compensation TO him?
And by arbitrarily determining the value of
his time, the use of his property, and his
labor, without his consent, do you not ap-
propriate it to the public? Again, is the
power ''to regulate commerce among the
States any more comprehensive than the
power 'to regulate commerce with foreign
nations ?" Are not the same terms used
in the anne grant of power ? Yet who will
thai we may create a commission TO
establish, and then from time fOtime revise
and alter the schedule of rates 10 be charged
by domestic vessels engaged in foreign COM
merce, or foreign vessels engaged in the
like trade? Such a board would perform
the office of a Chinese wall. But, sir, turn
ing for a moment to the arguments made in
of this bill, and adopting the lib
eral and latitudinarian construction they
have used, it would seem that the nature
and extent of this power is boundleSs, and
may embrace not only the common carriers
by rail. but the common carrier by the road
wagon, by the transfer wagon, by the omni-
bus, by the coach, by the dray, by the truck,
by the pack-horse, and by the wheeEbarrow.
II may extend to the vehicle or instrument,
and may include the warehouse and the de-
pot, and far beyond that, the barn, the crib,
and the field.
One cannot contemplate these assump-
tions of power in the General Government
without serious apprehensions as to the fate
Of all our local Jurisdictions and the free
dom of individual action; and the mere
confrontment of the results you must reach
upon the exercise of such power must show
that such mature and extent" thereof was
contemplated by the founders of our
Government.
And, Mr.. Speaker, while it must be adj
mitted that the ~Tailroads Of this country
have been favored by partial legislation,
that they enjoy vast privileges, and that i'll
the exercise of them many unjust discrimi-
nations, partialities, and combinations, on
erous, eXacting; and extortionate upon the
trade and commerce of the country, are
made, that instead of serving the sove-
reignties that created them, they are lording
it over them; and that instead of using the
privileges conferred upon them for the pub
lie good, they, in the interest of classes and
sections, are making wa upon it whereby
millions of tribute are uniustly taken from
the producers, yet needing the repiy of
these railroads and putting the matter in a
point of view where their defense is justly
weighed, and let it be granted that the cost
of construction, the cost of maintenance,
the cost of service has been and is such that
it is not possible, in justice to them, to
make any material reduction in the trans
p~ortation of the products of the country,
what is the remedy? Will a commission
fix less ratio? Will Congress? Will
the President? If the railroad companies
are right aud rates are fixed less, if the
power Of selfpotection is taken away from
them, is not the whole system threatened {? /
Could the country afford to abandon the |
railroads? Think for a moment of the
number of miles of railroads, the vast ex-
tent of territory and the number of people
dependent upon their facilities; how
they are interlaced and interviewer with
all the industries of your cities, towns, viii
lagos, and farms, and then suppose them
out of existence; or reflect again, |
and ask whether the labor of forty millions
people represented from the largest man
ufacturing establishment in your man.
moth cities to the smallest workshop in
some remote village; from the wheat-field
the North and the corn-ield Of the West
to the rice, sugar, and cotton plantations of
the South, should be made dependent not
upon the health of vigorous competition, not
upon the thrift of energy, not upon the life
activity. not uDOn the freedom of hon |