The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1882-03-09
COnf1scating Railroad Property by Law.
From the New York Telegram.

From the New York Telegram.
While he State of New York is still DELHI
Grating as to thedesirability OF the feasibility
of regulating railroad management by stat
ute, other states, and notably several of the
Central Western states, have been with va
rying success trying the experiment.
Probably the experiment is worth the try
irg and worth all the laundering that it has
thus far cost. The principle that corporate
citizens, like any other citiz- MS, should be
subject to Legislative authority, is sound
one. The assumption that the law making
power has the disposition and the ability to
do justice is at the base of all organ
zed society. It ia better that railroad cor
porations should be placed at the mercy"
Of the tate 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
srlnes of state sovereignty and railroad
sovereignty, there can be but one outcome.
Yet, for the very reason that the principle
IF railroad regulation by the state is a
sound and necessary one, any manifest in
justice in the way of such railroad regula-
ton is the more to be deplored.
The other states that have exerted their
authority in this direction have either
injustice, or, in the light of experience,
nave so modified their statutes as to re-
ieve them of such charges. Illinois has
not. In that State alone the worst princi.
pies, or rather the worst blunders Of the
first crude and unenlightened attempts to
regulate the details Of railway traffic still
remain in force. The Railroad Commas
sioners of that State, under their singular
~ absolute powers, have recently, in
Iced, established new schedule of
freight rates, but this new tariff,
taken as whole, is a reduction of the tariff
of1873, by almost 30 per cent, and this re-
tuction is effected alta time when the Board
Of Equalization has increased the assess
nent of railroad property in Illinois 81, 0OO.-
900 over that of the previous year, and
doubled the assessment as compared with
1875. Here would seem to be, without
going into the details of the respective tar
ifs, f,sima tacie cause for the complaints
If the railford owners that the state of ILL.,
oeis is rapidly confseating their property
ander the forms of law.
A presumption at least as TO the injustice
If the Illinois method of treating railway
property may be fairly derived from the
fact that the railroad interests have no
spokesman or representative on the COM
mission that Yields such mighty powers over
hem. In view of the extent of these pow
ers and the nicely of the interests involved,
it would seem to be no more than fair that
one out of the three members of the board
of railroad and warehouse commits
sioners should at least possess some
pra teal acquaintance with railroad affairs.
On the contrary, that board at present con;
lists Of a druggist, an insurance agent and
, v1o1ifS0ior ond u1not 10 vvor1oh tho
law excludes all persons employed by or
connected with the business of any rail-
road company or warehouse, and all per-
SONS owning SO much as share in any
railroad, from serving as commissioner.
Chis provision of the law, as to
ogic and constitutionality, would
seem to be on par with q
statute depriving all citizens who own
my kind Of property Of eligibility to the
legislature or to the Office Of governor, or to
any other Office whereby property interests
may be affected.
Altogether there is indisputable evidence
that the history of railway regulation in
Illinois is little calculated to advance the
cause of railway regulation elsewhere or to
sustain the fundamental confidence in the
capacity Of American popular bodies 10
deal justly and go slow. Illinois would
10 better for it's reputation. as
we'll as for its interests,
by observing the example of Massachusetts,
the pioneer state in the matter of railway
reform. where no statutory freight tariff
has ever been attempted, aud by following
the example Of Wisconsin, Iowa and Min
nesota, where the first ill-considered tariffs
have been modified in accordance with the
reasonable representations of the railroads,
and where, nevertheless, all genuine abuses
in railway management have been abated