Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-05-11

sybtcm.
The Auditor of the Post Office Depart
ment has sent to fourth class postmasters
a circular which will gladden. their hearts,
for il declares that their pay has been in
creased. the additional allowance begin
ming on March 3. Some indication of the
amount which the department must pay
because Of legislative blunder before the
date on which letter postage will be reduc-
ed is afforded by the statement that there
are 44.79S postmasters of the fourth class
and only 2,095 in the three other classes.
The pay of all these fourth class postmas-
tiers was increased, according to the recent
decision, on March 3. and they will re-
ceive the additional allowance until Oct
/. A postmaster who received only sl2o
a year before March will be allowed
5000 from that date. The change can be
shown very plainly by another example.
The postmaster who received under the
old law $500 as commission upon annual
sales amounting to 81 400 will be allowed
1910 from March 3 on annual sales of the
same amount These salaries will be re-
duced however, on and after Oct. l, but
the additional expense caused in seven
months BY this blunder will probably force
the department to ask for large sum OF
money in addition to the sum appropriated.
1926, 900. for postmasters' salaries in the
coming fiscal year, and another sum in
addition to the amount given Tor the same
object in the current fiscal year.
The Granger Cases.
In the so-called Granger decision, rendered
on Monday. the Supreme Court of the United
States decides that the State has the power
to fix maximum rate of charges for rail.
road, notwithstanding its charter entities its
board of directors to establish such rates of
tolls for the conveyance of persons or property
as they shall from time to time by their by
laws determine. This, one of the most i'm
portant cases the Federal Supreme Court has
been called to pass upon arose out of con-
troversy over two cents.
A passenger on the Chicago. Burlington
and Quincy Railroad rendered the conductor
eighteen cents rs fare between two points six
miles apart, WHICH Is eQulNaitut 10 tHe
maximum rate fixed bv the State Legis,
lature Of three cents a mile. The con-
ductor demanded twenty cents the fare fixed
BY the railroad company. and, it being refused
attempted to eject the passenger. For this
the latter prosecuted the conductor on a
charge of assault and battery. before justice
of the peace, who gave Judgment against
the conductor for ten dollars aud costs. The
railroad company sustained its servant and
carried the case by successive appeals to the
Supreme Court of the State. and, Judgment
going against it there, final appeal was
taken to the Supreme Court of the United
States.
The claim of the railroad company was
that the Illinois law fixing a maximum rate
of charges was unconstitutional. because il
impaired the obligation of the contract
contained in the charter of the COM
pany, which gives the company the
right to establish its own rate of tolls.
The Supreme Court holds that immunity
from legislative control is never to be presum-
ed, and, unless an exemption is clearly estab-
lished, the Legislature is free to act on all
subjects within its general jurisdiction, as
public interests may seem to require. II
holds that it Is settled law that state has
the legislative power to regulate the charges
of carriers for hire. unless restrained bv
some contract in the charter, and that the
power given to the railroad to fix its own
tolls is not such restraint upon the Legisla-
ture, but is to be exercised by the railroad
subject to the right of the Legislature to lin
it the amount OF charges. The same judg-
ment was rendered in the case of the Illinois
Central Railroad, which presented exactly
the same issue,
There is no clause of the Federal Consti-
tuition which has given rise to more litigation,
discussions and decisions than the prohibition
of State legislation impairing the obliga-
ton of contracts. This Granger decision
while it trenches very closely upon that rul
ing landmark for all subsequent de-
cisions, the Dartmouth College case, is
not inconsistent with the reasoning and
Judgment given on that issue. A
charter, under this last decision, is still a
contract, the obligation of which legisla-
ture may not impair, but the exercise by the
State of its inherent right to regulate the cor
porations it creates is not an impairment ot
the contract rights of the latter, unless there
has been an express REIMBURSEMENT Of this
right to regulate granted by the State
Philadelphia Press.
e1n a. H. = e'0ss an!