Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-03-10
Conflscating Railroad Property Law.
From the New York Telegram.

While the State of New York is still
the feasibility of regulating railroad
management By statues, other States
and notably several of the Contra
Western States, have been with varying
success trying the experiment. Proba,
bly, the experiment is worth the trying
and worth all the laundering that it has
thus far cost. The principle that it cor.
porate citizens, like any other citizens
should be subject to legislative author.
ity, is sound one. The sumption
that the law-making power has the
disposition and the ability to do Justice
is at the base of all organized society
1t is better that railroad corporations
should be placed cat the mercy" of the
State than that the State and its people
should remain at the mercy of railroad
corporations. OF any conflict that may
impend between the respective doc
trines of state sovereignty and railroad
sovereignty, there can be but one out
come. ! ct, for the very reason that
the principle of railroad regulation by
the state is sound and necessary one,
any manifest injustice in the way G.
such railroad regulation is the more to
be deplored.
The other States that have exerted
their authority in this direction have
either avoided all ground for serious
charges Of injustice, or in the light OF
experience, have so modified their
statues as to relieve them Of such
charges. Illinois has not. In that State
alone the worst principles, or rather the
worst blunders of the first crude and
unenlighted attempts to regulate the
details of railway traffic still remain in
force. The Railroad Commissioners of
that State under their singularly alb
solute powers, have recently, indeed,
established new schedule of freight
rates, but this new tariff, taken as a re-
duction of the tariff of 1873, by almo st
80 per cent, and this reduction is
effected at time when the Board of
Equalization has increased the assess
meRt of railroad property in Illinois
s. 100000 over that of the previous
year, and doubled the assessment as
compared with 1876. Here would seem
to be, without going into the details of
the respective tariffs, prinsd fdcie cause
for the complaints of the railroad own
ners that the State of Illinois is rapidly
contiscating their property uuder the
forms of law.
A presumption at least as to the in
justice of he Illinois method of treat
ingrailway property may be fairly de-
rived from the fact that the railroad in
terests have no spokesman or represent
alive on the commission that wields
such mighty powers aud the nicely of
the interests involved, j: would seem to
be no more than fair that one out o
the three members of the Board of r all
road and Warehouse Commissioners
should at least possess some practical
acquaintance with railroad afairs. On
the contrary, that board at present con-
sists Of druggist, an insurance agent
and a politician, and, what IS much
worse, the law excludes all persons en-
ployed by or connected with the BUSH
ness of any railroad company or ware
house, and all persons owning so much
as a share in any railroad, from serving
as commissioner. This provision of
the Law. as to logic and constitutional
ity, would seem to be on par with a
statute depriring all citizens who own
any kind of property of eligibility to
the legislature or to the cfiice OF gov
ernor, or to any other Office whereby
property interests may be affected
Altogether there Is indispstable eyi-
dence that the history Of railway regu-