New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-09-02
THE RAILROAD WAR.
wyscoNsIN TIE BATTLE GROUND.

FOR THE REGULATION OF OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
JECr AND PROVISIONS OF THE POTTER LAW -
IT'S REQUIREMENTS DIsREGARDED BY THE RAIL
ROAD COMPANIES AND CONTESTED IN THE
COURTS.
IRON THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF TIE rRibosL
MADISON, Wis, Aug. 5.-"If the rates FOR the
TRANSFORMATION of passengers and fret ght fixed in the
Potter law for the Chicago, Milwaukee and st. Paul
Railroad were TO be adopted" said MIR. John w.
Cary the attorney for that corporation In his argu
before the Supreme Court of this State yester
day. 1.-THE profits of the Company which are now
less than five per cent on the money invested wouu
be reduced to less than three per cent" Inc en-
forcement of the act would deprive the Chicago and
North Western Company of all benefit from It's
property.D says the answer of its counsel to the
information of the State Attorney-Genera
1.-THE Governor of Wisconsin fired salute
of 100 guns the other day on receiving
the news that the victims of that State could get no
redress in the courts much as Sicilian brigands
would let off their carbnes with JOY on hearing that
the prisoners friends had given up all hope from the
polce and that the ransom on its way, says
The ~ Y Nation of last week. This is the rail-
road view of the pending contest in this State, ana
the assertions it contains have been made SO often
by the repres antatives of the two great corpora
tions that heretofore have run the politics OF DOM
parties in this State and carried the votes OF egis
tors in their breeches pockets that fear the impress
sion is gaining ground in the East that the farmers
of this State are realya band Of brgands that they
have no regard for the rights of capital invested III
railroads but expect those railroads to transport
themselves and their freight at certain low rates. no
matter what the cost of the service may De.
THE CHANGERS MIsREPREsENTED.
The Changers of Wisconsin are not the unreason-
able class they have been represented to be- bent on
the destruction OF railway property or its conhsca-
ton They are of the most intelligent and conser-
yatiye class of Western farmers, whose Eastern
education has taught them to respect the rights OF
others while demanding regard for their own. They
have done more, sacrificed more than the people OF
any other State in order to have railroads built;
they understand perfectly that the true interests of
the owners of the railroads and of the people who
use them are identical, and when you find them at
swords points with the managers of the railroads,
as they now are in this State it is pretty safe To con-
clude that there is something wrong What isltf
shall assume that there are two sides to this as
to every other controversy. know that the people
of this state have had great cause for complaint
against the railroad managers and especially against
those who have operated the two great roads when
own the larger part of the lines IN Wisconsin On
the other hand, the Potter law may be, and very
likely is defective it is possible that some roads IN
This State cannot be operated the rates prescribed
in that act Ny purpose is to ascertain, II possible
what are the exact merits of the case, Dut IN TINS
letter shall only have space to review, very briefly
and at the risk of repeating what may already be
familiar to many some OF the Leading events
out of which the present controversy mas
grown. l may say, in passing that Wisconsin
hanpens inst now to be the battle-ground of the
tho has GboNyp
remarkable energy and fertility of resource in his
attempts to enforce the Potter law, and because
the railroad interest being more consolidated than
in any other State and, therefore, comparatively
stronger has chosen to make its first great stand
here instead of in Iowa Minnesota. hoping that II
it is victorious here the people of the other States
will accept the result in Wisconsin as final.
HISTORY OF THE CONTROVERSY.
The trainers of the Wisconsin State Constitution,
as long ago 1913. put into it the following words
Corporations may be formed under general laws
but shall not created by special act except Tor u
ncipal purposes ard in where, Ill the Judgment
OF the Legislature the objects OF the corporations can
not be attained under general laws. All general laws
or special acts enacted under the provisions OF this sec
ton NAV be altered repealed by the Legislature ct
any time after their passage.-tArt XII, Sec l.
Nobody disputes that the object of this constitu-
tional provision to retain in the Legslature the
right to control for the public interest corporations
created by the laws of the State. In the words OF
Justice Field, of the United States Supreme Court
The object of the reservation and of similar reser-
yations is to prevent grant of corporate rights and
privileges in form which will preclude legislative
interference with their exercise if the public inter
est should at any time require such interference 1T
is provision intended to preserve tp the State the
control over its contract with the corporations,
which without that provision would be lrrepealapie
and protected from any measures aiectinR lts obi,
gationsn Under this article OF the Constitution all
the railroad charters of this State have been granted
and all railroads built
For years the people of Wisconsin have been SUD-
jected by the railroad companies of the State to
what they have considered most UNJUST ana OPP
pressive treatment OF its character and extent, L
shall speak hereafter. During several successive
sessions of the Legislature they attempted to pass
laws to reform these abuses, and to prevent unjust
determinations and extortionate charges but cQnld
never succeed 1t has been asserted that the Pot
ter law will drive the railroads into politics; they
have been in politics for years Conformity the
Milwaukee and st. Paul and the Chicago and North
Western Companies have owned more than one
Legislature; and while the contention between
them has sometimes been very bitter, and the lines
between their respective partisans have been more
distinctly drawn than those between the adherents
of the two political parties, they have always united
their forces defeat the passage Of any law limit.
ing their powers in the slightest degree ~ was not
formed and. by intelligent united action became
able in a large degree TO dictate the policy OF both
parties on this question, and name the men who
were to 90 to the Legislature that the hold OF the
railroads on that body was released. 1t is very
nrobabe that beaten in the courts of the State and
Of the United States. the railroads will make des-
nerate effort to obtain control of the next Legisa-
ture in order to secure the repeal OF the Potter
law: but in doing this they will only be continuing
q practice many years old.
PROVISIONS OF THE POTTER LAW.
The Potter law, about which there has been so
much controversy simply fixes maximum rates for
each of the railroads in this State those rates being
regulated by the character of the country through
which the road extends, the amount Of business it
does. &C. For instance. the Milwaukee and st. Paul.
the Chicago and Western, and the Western In
,ro oIIoyad IN cha roo for naase gers