Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-12-29

. 1t is reported from Washington that the
House committee on commerce will shortly
report favorably on MIR. Sapp's bill for the
creation of board of railroad commissions
ers under the direct supervision of the ma;
tional authority. If the committee should
in reality be guilty of such an act of idiocy,
We have little fear that Congress will approve
of its recommendation. The commissioners,
it is proposed, shall be appointed .by the
President, and hold Office for life. They
are to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over
all questions concerning railroad transporta-
ton, settle all disputes, and fix the maxi
mum rates all railroads between the
several States. -'' ..-.,r '@.'
The bill is foolish, because an unneces-
sary and revolutionary one. The supreme
court of the United States has already de-
cided in Q case carried to it from Minnesota.
that the several States have absolute control
over the railroads within their borders, and
the legislatures can at will fix the rates of
transportation of freight and passengers,
from which there can be no appeal. This
being the case, the proposal to appoint
central railroad commission with power de-
rived from the President and Congress, is
an attempt to take from the States power
that of right resides in them, and that thew
are the best qualified to exercise. It il
therefore both unnecessary and revolution
airy, and should not under any circumstances
be passed. -
In another respect the bill is pernicious
one. Our government is already numbered
with too many boards and bureaus. They
take oognizance of nearly all the affairs of
the citizens, and exercise paternal care over
the minutest details of every day life. The
national board of health assumes to direct
the people as to the food they should eat, the
ralment they should wear, and their general
hygienic course in order to avoid sickness.
The only thing that makes it's existence tol-
cradle is the fact that it does not discharge
the duties entrusted to it. The bureau of
agriculture tells the farmer what he should
plant and how he should plant it. The COM
missioner of education exercises a fatherly
control over our school system. And so on
through all that affects the individual well
fare of the people,. The government has
constituted itself the guardian of the lives
and the consciences of it's subjects on the
presumption, evidently, that they are not
free moral agents, but are incapable of con-
trolling their own appetltes or ministering
to their own wants. This tendency is con-
| stantly growing, and if allowed to go on un-
checked we will ere long have commission
er of conscience, another of diet, another to
decide what books man may read, what
church he sLall attend, or how often he NAV
stay away from home after dark, all under
the control of the government at Washing
ton.
MIR. Sapp was evidently appropriately
named. No one but person lacking brains
would conceive of the inability of the States
to govern the corporations that exist uude,
their laws, after the highest tribunal in the
land had decided that they had tho right to
do 80. Does he suppose that men will quiet
ly submit to robbery because they lack gen.
eral law on the subject, while the remedy for
their wrongs is in their own hands?
We have already too many bureaus and
commissions. Instead of increasing their
numbers Congress should at once commence
the work of abolishing them. They are all
expensive, and majority of them are USE
less. The people demand relief from their
expressions and exactions, and will frown
upon any attempt to increase their powers or
their numbers.