The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-01-30

L NE AlISsishlpp1 Legislature has beer
organized by the election OF r. Q. Rey
nolds, as president pro tenn OF the Senate
and VIM. NJ. Inge as speaker of the House
We do not know that any great signifi.
canoe is attache ! to the election of these
gentlemen to preside over their respective
branches of the Legislature MIR. Rey-
! nolds, it is well known. was opposed to the
wild attempt made in the last Legislature
to adopt a system of State supervision of
| the railroads in and passing through tha
Safe. He Is certainly, we think, repre-
sentative of the anti-supervision element of
! the Senate, and We presume his election is
| indicative of the opposition of majority
| Of the Senate to the supervision scheme OF
| the last Legislature. As this sentinne1 t
was championei by Mr.. Barksdale. former
| ly of the Clarion, and the present repre-
| sentative of his district in Congress. the
movement in this State will miss his able
championship. And as he has opened his
var ON the railroads from his new position
IN the Congress of the United States. it
nay be that the State supervisionists n
Mississippi will be content to look to the
action of Congress for carrying out their
popular views in regard to railroad regu-
lation.-Natckez Democrat.
The foregoing has been extensively
copied by our exchanges. We had laid
it aside for comment when it first ap-
pcared. We do not t.ink the question
of railroad supervision, or prohibition
or the position of Col Reynolds or Co.
Inge on any public question had any
thing whatever to do with their election
as President pro ten or Speaker. They
were chosen on their generally reccg
nized merits and capacity for those i'm
portant positions
The attempt to adopt some system of
railroad supervision may be wild
in the estimation of our cotemporarv,
and Others, but as twenty-three States
are already committed 10 it, and IS the
Democracy Of Mississippi, in two State
Conventions, have solemnly and unani-
mously declared Corporations of every
description supervisable within consti-
tutional limits by State authority, and
subordinate to State legislation in the
interest and for the protection of the
people" it would seem incumbent upon
the present Legislature, as we thought
it was upon the last, to meet the just
expectation of the people in this partic-
ular. There is no disposition to "make
war upon the railroads; on the con-
trary, everybody recognizes Their great
benefits, but they have become power
that needs regulating and super
vision, and We have an abiding con
fidence in the wisdom and discretion of
the present Legislature to perfect a law
that will do no injustice to the railroads,
and yet be guarantee against unreason-
able charges, and unjust discrimina-
tions.
The Governor, in his message, on this
subject, very foreibly says: "The right
and duty of the State to guard her own
citizens, to the extent of her power,
against unreasonable exactions and bur
dens from this source, cannot, in my
Judgment, as far as domestic commerce
is concerned, be now successfully cor
troverted."
The power to regulate interstate COM
merce, it is generally conceded, is vested
in the Congress of the United States.
Congress can only exercise control over
transportation passing through two or
more States II cannot touch it when
confined within a State, so that Cor
gress and the Legislatures both have
their duties to perform. To say that
the one can act for both, is. in our
Judgment, an evasion But there ap-
pears to be very little prospect of any
effective measure passing Congress at
its present session. It would be we'll,
therefore, for the Legislature to shape
its policy on this important question
regardless of what Congress may or may
not do. That it viii dispose of it in the
public interest, We hope and believe.