Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-05-25
lancaster fntelligerlcer.
FRIDAY EVENING. MAY Is. 1888,
Railroad Discrimination.

FRIDAY Evening. MAY IS. 1888,
Railroad Discrimination.
The Senate has at last engaged in the
of railroad discrimination in
charges, a question which should long
aoo have occupied its attention and
which at this late hour of the session is
not likely to receive that mature cOnsid-
Grafton which will result in its proper
disposition not that there is anything
very difficult in the matter {; there is |
plain provision in the constitution pre-.
hibiting undue discrimination by rail-
roads, which it is the duty OF the Legis-
lature to enact into law that will pro.
vide an adequate penalty for its viola
tion. The matter will then be handed
over to the courts and juries and there
it will be likely to receive such enforce
ment as the public interest demands.
But the Legislature seems 10th to hand
over the railroad corporations to the
control Of juries. Railroad officers 90
not like iuries. They are sad embar-
rassments to the free exercise OF the
great power of the state which has been
conferred upon them for the public good,
but which they conceive that they have
obtained only for their private emolu
ments. Judge Black, who takes great
interest in considering the relations
of railroads to the people, main
tains that railroad officers are
agents of the public, just as
officers of cities are, and that they are
equally guilty when they pervert the
authority with which they are clothed
to purposes purely selfish. Whether or
no this is a position which the courts
would now affirm, it is clearly one which
the public interests require to be essab-
lished and which public sentiment is
likely to secure as the Interpretation of
the law before this issue between the
railroads and the people is finally settled.
Why is a railroad permitted to enter
mon a mans land and take it without
his consent ? Is it that it may
enrich its stockholders No; that
is but the incident of the grant, which
is made that the public necessity for
rapid transit may be accommodated. 1t
is the interest of the state to have trans
portatlon by railroads, and it fosters it
with grants of necessary power. But it
is the interest of the state that its peO-
ple shall have cheap transportation, and
that its facilities shall be equally ex-
tended to all classes of citizens and all
its communities. Therefore, it is its
duty to see to it that no undue profit
accrues from the exercise of the powers
it has granted. 1t must see to it that no
undue amount of money is represented
in the railroad capital upon which the
people is required to pay a fair interest.
1t must provide that no undue discriml-
nation in railroad charges shall be made
between any of the railroads customers.
When the constitutional convention
expressed this as the fundamental law
of Pennsylvania it seemed that the
question was settled. But it was not
because the old railroads claimed to be
above the constitution, but mainly be.
cause the Legislature for nine years re-
fused to enforce it. Now the issue is
before it again. The first section of the
bill in the Senate declares to be unlawful.
the discrimination which the ccnstitu
tion long ago declared to be so. That
section passed the Senate easily. But
when the second section, which put the
whip into the hands Of the jury to
punish the violation of what was
declared to be unlawful, by de
ciaring the act to be a mis-
demeanor, punishable with fine and
Imprisonment, Senator Stewart pro
posed to amend it by substituting a
section which was weakened repetition
of the first section, but provided no pen
alty. This was too much water for Sen
ator Hall, who proposed to amend by
providing that the company viola
ting the law should be liable
for treble damages to the person
injured by its discrimination thus sub
stituting a civil for criminal penalty
Railroad officers object to being held as
criminals for violating the law. Mr..
Gowen so objected. Yet without great
apparent reasons: If theydo not want ia
be imprisoned, why may they not
conclude to escape the danger of
it by not violating the law? d? Yes, they
say, but we will never know what a jury
will call undue discrimination. If that
is their difficulty they can easily avoid il
by proposing to publish their charges
from each station on their road by
naking those charges the same tc
every person who ships like kind
of freight, in a train load. car
load, or less than a carload lot, in like
direction, by charging no more for a
shorter than longer haul in the same
direction and by asking the Legislature
to enact that where they promise this
and do it they shall not be convicted Of
undue discrimination by jury which,
if they ask it, the Legislature will Ger
tainly enact.
In Chicago last evening was opened
railway exposition, which exhibits the
marvellous progress of an interest little
over half century old. 1t is fitly held
at the great railroad and population