Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-07-16
The Railway Decision.

of the u. s. Court against granting
an Injunction to the railroads. The
Chicago Tribune thu discourses
The conAtitutionaIity of tho law
has been affirmed on the ground hat,
under the Constitution Of Wisconsin,
the charters of sill corporations in
the State may be catered or re-
pealed at any time after their pass
age" This article of tie Constitu
ton, the Court held. was introduced
as condition into eli the numerous
grants under which the companies
claim their rights Of franchise and
property. The owners of the railway
stock and the holders of It's securities
took them subject to this condition.
The corporations could not, by max
ing q contract or deed OF trust OF
their property, clothe their creditors
with any higher powers than. they
had received, for if they could DO this
they might by their own act abrogate
the fundamental law of the State.
All the world knows that the State
of Wisconsin has reserved to itself
the right to alter or repeal the char
Ter of any corporation in that State.
What is the exact meaning of the
words "alter or repeal' was a matter
of dispute until the decision Oy Judge
Drummond in the injunction case
was make known Saturday last at
Madison. 1t is now undersood that
they mean that the State OF Wiscon-
sin has the power, not to Ia ke the
property, but to destroy tho evonue
of any corporation in il, and to ham
per it SO that it shall not be able to
pay its ndebtedness, and not for
good reason shown, but arbitrarily,
because such is its good viii ard
pleasure. The decision means that
no corporation in Wisconsin. railroad,
life, or fire insurance company, man
ufacturing, educational, or other, has
any rights which the State is neces-
sarlly bond TO respect. If this
be the correct Interpretation of
the Constitution of Wisconsin-and
Judge DrummOnd's authority is
so high that we cannot gain
say tit contains the germ of some
grave misfortunes TO the State, for
it is equivalent to provision warn
ing capital out of the State 1t
strikes a blow at the State abroad.
Where there is no credit, there will
be little enterprise or capital +; and
where there is little capital, there is
little of anything that makes life
desirable or enjoyable. Where there
is no credit, foreign capital viii not
come, aud home capital will not stay,
There is no credit whore there is no
security and there is no security
where, by the fundamental law of
the State, millions OF capital may at
any time be destroyed, millions of
debt be made irrecoverable, and
thousands of contracts invalidated.
If the railway corporations Of Wis
consin were to repudate Composing
them to have the power to do 500
their debts, there would be terrible
hue and cry against them. But here
comes in the State and threatens 10
compel them to repndiate under the
!. use of law. If Wisconsin perse-
veres in her policy toward corpora
tions, the era of her Developments is
gone. Not dollar would Lombard
street or Wall street loan in Wiscon-
sin to-day to build mile OF railroad.
Not dollar will she be able to OBJ
tain for such purposes fl tbeintorpre-
tation now put upon ner Constitution
is enforced by acts involving practi-
cal reputation by her corporations.
And before money is loaned to any
corporation for any pur-
pose the lenders will think twice or
thrice.
What the railroads will do next
may be guessed at. To avoid loss
they will cut down expenses, run
slower trains. employ less experience
ed hands, use poorer cars, neglect
keeping the road in repair for the
present-in fine, by every means in
their power to make their outgo less
than their income-and all to the
of the public. That |
the railway rates fixed at present
cannot be continued, is quite certain,
unless we assume that the railway
are unblushing liars Prob
ably the successful parties to this
litigation will accept the advice of
the judges and not bear down so
hard on the railroads as the law
enables them to do, and so the evils
will be really less than there is
ground to apprehend.
OF course speculations will be in
1ulged in as TO the outcome of the
to the Supreme Court. At.
-er careful reading of Judge Drum
nond's remarks, W. can see no