The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1883-07-19

establish what all thoughtful men
deprecate, IA privileged class" of
corporations,in in the ''roads to be here
after constructed"
Our contemporary again calls our
attention to the recent decision Of the
U. S. Supreme Court in the Illinois
rail road cases. We thought we had
met it fully on that branch of the
discussion, in the very article from
which it quotes, and we also put
ourself to the trouble Of publishing
the full text of this decision of the
court for the benefit of our readers
and contemporaries, a thing which no
other paper in the United States
has done.
But as the Clarion would not quote
our citations, but says again, show i'll
the face of this decisi on the Examiner
has reached its conclusion that the
Legislature has tied the hands of tho
State in the matter of regulating
corporations, we are utterly at a loss
to conceive" we will repeat the very
extracts from this decision that we
published in the same editorial from
which our cotemporary clipped the
concluding paragraph as text for
the amiable lecture to which we are
responding:
In this editorial, published June
l1th in the Examiner,and commented
on by our friend in his issue of july
4th, we wrote as follows;
So far from controverting the opin-
ion which was expressed by the
Examiner in an Editorial written
before the publication of the decision
of the U. S. Supreme Court in the
"Neal Ruggles case" Chief Justice
Waite in that very decision supports
us when he says:
I'm the absence Of some restrain
Jug contract, the State may establish
maximum of rates to be charged by
rail road companies for the transpor
tation of persons and property"
And again where he says;
"UNLEss AN EXEMPTION is EsTAB
, LIsAED, the Legislature is free to ac
on all subjects within its jurisdiction
as public interests may require"
In the Iowa cases involving simila
+ issues, the Supreme Court maintained
: the same opinion regarding tn
f inviolabiIity of specific charter con
tracs between the State and the raj
y roads, when it made the followin!
II declaration:
3 "a State may limit the amount {
# charges by rail road companies fc
y fares and freights,UNLEss RESTRAINE
BY SOME CONTRACT IN THE CHARTER
Now, in each of these several cit
tions the Court gives us to clearly III
delstand that railroad charter whe
not couched in general terms, bl
: framed SO as to make specific gran
as to rates, right of way, ETC., if
" accordance with the Constitution
J the State and the United States, IS
CONTRACT as between the people
the State and the lncorporators, al
binds not only the Legisture tn
granted it and the Incorporate
- named in it, but all subsequent lie!
10 islatures and all to whom the chart
T. T. may subsequently be assigned.
- the contrary was the case Leglsl
IL lures would be as reckless as was o
al King Powhatan in the comedy, w
VI , swaggeringly announces "the la
10 which yesterday we made, we tod
70 repeal" and there would be no sect
10 ity whatever for corporations, and
'h inducement or incentive that won
~ prompt men to mass their means
investment in progressive works.
a. The charter privilege to borrc
ne money upon mortgage OF roadb
1t might be repealed by a succeedi
y Legislature on the eve of the neg
III tiation of loan, or a Legislatr
On elected subsequent to the grantl
w of charter might revoke the pow
rs to declare dividends, thus deprivi
IS capital of its rightful earnings, or
We any other whimsical thing that fou
OF favor with majority, if chart'
ed were not compacts, and Constitute
he did not declare contracts inviolab
4