St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-03-31
Railroad Charges.

Judge Jere Black, the eminent jurist;
of Pennsylvania, shows in the follow
ing. the right of the State to regulate
railroad charges.
81 hold that railroad charter without
reasonable limit tOEcharges is void.
The road is not public highway if the
managers may charge whatever they
please. This was settled as early as
1881 in the first great railroad case that
ever came before the conrts-the case
of Bonaparte against the Camden u
Amboy Railroad company. To say the
State cannot save the people from such
extortion and fraud is to utter 81
preposterous absurdity. BY the right
of eminent domain the State always has
the power to abate a monopoly. 1ou
can regulate the railroads just as you
can hack drivers. The opinion ofJudge
Waite in the case against the State OF
point completely. Mr.. Gowen says the
railroads have great power with the
courts. don't know how that is, but
really they are weak and powerless in
any issue that brings them before the
people. Fors every millionaire they
have made a thousand paupels; Tor
every man they've done a. favor to
they have cheated ten thousand, and
these are the things that will be re-
membered in popular issue. There Is
nothing in the Lords Prayer more cor
rect than the seventeenth article of the
constitution. Does anybody pretend
that railroad companies have right. to-
monopolize not only railroads but other
business besides and fleece the countryf"
He also shows how members Of the
legislature can be einfuenced by a free
railroad ticket:
"Does anyone believe free tickets %
good thing 2 | believe that any MEM
Der of this legislature could be intiu-
enced improperly by a free ticket.
These tickets may be worth to legisla-
| tors who are men of business from 500
to $500 year. Now, would there be
any difference in principle if Mr.. Ro-
bins came up here with cash enough to
go around and give that much money
to each member? While you are at it
don't permit any judge, especially any
judge of the supreme court, to take any
such accommodations. think the ju-
| like Caesars wife-not only chaste, but
unimpeachable. The railroads ask you
to stop short when you come to some
thing hard for them to bear. A tavern
keeper indicted for keeping a disorder
! ly house knows he is guilty. His
| friends and customers are about to be
called up as witnesses. He knows that
| he will be convicted if they all tell the
truth. He has given them many free
drink and he promises them an abun-
dance of free rum in future il they
stop little short of telling the whole
truth. These railroad people think that
the whole commonwealth was made for
them. They. tell you what they're go
| ing to suffer If justice be done. Their
unlawful profits are to be curtailed, and
that's their objection"
And lie further shows what contempt
the railroad people have for the law
81 don't doubt their contempt for the
constitution is sincere. They've proved
it in many ways. A mighty banker be-
fore the Lord came up here from Phila-
delpbia to carry through the legisia-
tire bill that would give the corpora.
tion that he represented four million OF
the States money, to which that corpo-
ration had no more right than the wolf
has to the mutton that it sfaughters in
/ the light of the moon. Certain persons
got little startled at the methods he
!. adopted. A committee asks him il he
/ didn't know that corrupt solicitation
of legislators was very wrong. No, he
didn't know any such thing. What,
they exclaimed. don't yon know the
constitution forbids it g o yes he re-
| piled: I know there's lot of stuff in
the constitution about that, but then
nobody cares for the constitution that !
know Of That was the training he got
on that subject by his masters before he
left Philadelphia, and now his masters
make use Of the same argument against
this bill.''
The Railroad Kingdom.