The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1883-05-30

In the Legislature Of 1882 the fghl
for a Supervisory Law was made with
all the vim and ability that could be
brought to bear upon the question, and
failed to pass, but the same Legislature
passed bill after bill, embracing "legis-
latiOn within Constitutional limits"
that efectually, by sacred and solemn
covenant, disarmed the Legislature and
the State of constitutional power to
supervise" her railroads except in the
way Of passing a general law, giving to
all the old roads the rights and privi-
leges and protection specifically granted
by charter TO the new ones.
The foregoing is from the Aberdeen
Examiner. After citing the provisions
of numerous railroad charters granted
by the Legislature, it adds:
We hold that in granting these pow
ers the State made full and complete
surrender of whatever constitutional
right of supervision Of Tariffs, " she may
have possessed, so far as the roads named
are concerned, and we do not suppose that
any lawyer will take issue with US upon
this matter. Supervision" passed with
the enactment of these charters from
the Legislative to the Judicial Depart
ment of the State Government, and the
railroads and their patrons are thrown
upon the courts for enforcement and
punishment as in the matter of all other
laws that establish rights or mark the
limits of privilege and exemption.
We are not sure that we rightly compre-
bend the idea onr contemporary intends
to convey The sum of it seems to be,
that the State by giving the companies
authority to fix Gust and reasonable
rates of transportation" surrendered its
right to regulate, supervise or control
them, Nothing was further from the
thought of the Legislature; and we will
do the attorneys of the railroads who
wrote their charters the justice to say
that they could not have intended to cir
cunvent the representatives of the peo-
pie by any such cunning device. The
language of the Examiner is strange
enough in the face of the repeated de-
cision of the highest judicial tribunal of
the country, that such charters do not
give away the States right of control.
The Examiners exchanges are now full
of a decision of the Supreme Court of
the United States lately pronounced in
two cases definitely and unmistaka a.
bly, settling that very question, or in other
words, reaffirming what had been before
decided The argument of the railroad
attorneys was that the State had granted
to the Board of Directors of the com
PAM es, 'the power to establish such
rates of toll as they might from time to
time by their bylaws determine" The
court decided that Il clause of the kind
in railroad charter is not a contract
preventing the State Legislature by law
or through its constituted agents, from
supervising and regulating their freights
and fares. In the absence of such exer.
else of authority by the State, it is the
province of the companies to fix their
charges, but it is subordinate to the
authority of the State. And so the com.
panies which we're chartered by the Mis-
sissi ppi Legislature in earlier days have
the right to prescribe their own rates, as
have the companies which were charter.
cd by the present Legislature, but an
inseparable condition of this provision
is that the sovereignty of the State when
invoked supercedes the authority of the
companies. This is the supreme law of
the land as expounded by the tribunal
of last resort under our government;
and here the argument ought to close
In taking issue with the Supreme Court
of the United States, we apprehend
our friend of the Examiner has rushed
in where the shrewd and able ATTORNEYS
retained by the companies would fear tt
tread.
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