The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-05-03

N~sou ouyofo NJ @AuutfSOu COtlfE do sc
South Carolina, respectfully show unto youi
Honorable BODY
ThSt under Section Q, Of the GDenlsratlor
OF Rights" In the Constitution Of 1858, the
right ito petition the government, or any
department therecf, shall never be abridged
TO the citizens Of this State. Under this
right, so guaranteed, your Petitioners 70.
spectfdlly ask the attention of your Honor.
able Body to grievance 70 which che peo.
ple OF this County, and Of other Sections OF
cur State, are subjected, and the moat effec-
tive remedy whereof, your Petitioners have
been advised, Is In the power Of your Hon.
orable Body.
Your Petitioners show, that ffom the
earliest adjudications Of cases involving the
privileges and responsibilities Of Raj,roads,
the Courts Of England and Of this 60 entry,
have uniformly held that Railroads ara
Common cdTievs. and that there attaches 10
such Corporations ell the duties OF Common
Carriers ut common Law. In O late Aneri.
can decision It was held that "a Railroad
Company is chartered, and is chartered SOLE
ly, for the purpose of exercising the func-
tons and performing tho duties of Com.
mon Carrier"
Your Petitioners further show, that Rail.
roads arc more than Common Carriers they
are Corporations to whom is delegated by
the State portion Of her own Sovereignty
Tho right OF Eminent Domain--and farms
or woodlands. dwelling-houses, even the
ancestral homes Of her citizens, the State
gives these creatures of hers the riel.. to
appropriate to their use, at their own sole
pleasure.
1our petitioners further show, as they
have been advised, that Railroads being
Common Carriers, and having had conferred
upon them these high rights, 30 delegated
tor public purposes ond for tho benefit Of
her citisens, the Sovereign State reserves to
her Legislature, in exchange therefor, tic
right to regulate these corporations, to keep
them otrictiy within their proper limits.
When Lord Chief Justice Holt said that
q Common Carrier exercises o public en-
ploymcnt," it was before steam had been
applied to promote locomotion; but now,
where the Common Carrier has also accor-
ded to him, for all his needed purposes, the
right Of Eminent Domain, it is o principle
which cannot DO questioned.
Your Petitioners further show, that In O
late well considered case, it was said by the
Supreme Court of one of our largest states-
wye are Of opinion that the Legislature has
the clearest right to pass an act Gag the ps--
pose OF preventing an unjust discrimination
In railway fFeights, whether as between in
dividuels or communities, and to enforce its
Observance by appropriate penalties;" and
it was recognized as perfectly well-settled
rule OF the common law, in regard to Com.
n.on Carriers that they shall not exercise
any unjust and injurious discrimination be-
tween individuals, in their rates of toll" or
between communities any more than be.
tween individuals.
Your Petitioners further show, that it has
become the practice Of some Railroad Com.
panieS In this State, TO disregard utterly their
common law liabilities, and to discriminate
unjustly In favor Of ono oomluunity at the
expense of another-to charge rates unrea-
sonabiy high, und 10 act as If tho only limit
imposed upon them was their own measure
of the peoples sufferance. In proof of these
facts, and as an illustration of the length to
which some Of our Railroads have gone
others may not discriminate so widely-we
mention the discrimination in freights of
come classes Of goods, &C., by the South
Carliinn and Greenville 6 Columbia Rail-
road Companiee-ttro corporations chartered
under the laws Of this State-namely, Mo.
LAssIs:
Freight by car load from Charleston
to Anjerson-250 miles. As 90
From Columbia 10 Anderson-i26
From Greenville to Anderson--S4
miles. ........ ........ 90 90
One of our merchants has Just received q
hogshead of mosasses from Wilmington. N.
c., upon which the freight from that point
to Columbia was $2.98, and from Columbia
to Anderson, $500. The freight from N ~
Yc:k, Philadelphiaand Boston to Anderson
@. H., ria Charleston and Columbia, are as
follows, per hundred pounds:
First class, 81 70; second class, 81 so; third
class, 81 80; fourth class, $1.10; fifth class,
Soc. /; sixth cleS9, zoe.
& From Columbia 10 Anderson, on the same
class of goods, the ffeights are--first cless,
a5c., Gecond class 76c., third class roc, fourth
dreenville to Anderson, only "a miles, on
same classes, the freights are 60c., Gee. 45c.,
S5c. and 90c. From Louisville, KY, and
other points of similar distance the ffeights
tc Greenviile, 8. c., on the article of Bacon
- Csc. per hundred pounds, and from Green
vile to Anderson, only thirty. four miles the
ferences exist on various articles ofmerchan-
disc which we might mention. We have
endeavofed to procure list showing the
great discrimination of fre:ghts on all nrti-
clss, In favor Of Grecnville, from Columbia,
but have failed to do so. The ra3es Of
fright from Columbia to oil points on ths
Greenville and Columbia Railroad is pub
lished by the, company. and occessably
tion Agents, except ut Greenville, where the
correct list is kept private and suppressed, as
we are informed, and to which point the
freights are greatly lower tiiun to Anderson,
where the distance from Columbia Is twenty
miles greater. Bacon from Greenvilla tn
Anderson Is charged as third class, and from
Charleston only ,ss sixth class. es--f
Your Petitioners fed that no argument
can poxtTgy the grievances OF the people os
Anderson County more fully than Is done
by this bare statement of the freight charges
to which we are subjected. But the evil tg
more far reaching than that: Our farmers
and merchants have been driven away from
Charleston, the city Of their choice, to At
lanta and other place in other States, be-
cause these Railroad Companies so discriRi-
nate in their freight charges that those out
side cities attract cur trade. Charleston, our
oW metropolis, is thus injured by tho cor
pogatiGns Of your own creationi Is there no
remedy for this? If SO It Is then true that
the creature 10 more powerful than the crea.
find that she has given life to monster that
will follow her. opprCss her, and finally de-
spoil her. BG not 90 belieying-believinR
j ti.nt IT wa, never intended or expected that