Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-03

any director, oncer, receiver, trustee or
agent Of the corporation or company de-
| fendant IN such SUIT to attend, appear
and testify in such case, and may COM
| pei the production of the books and pa
| pers of such corporation or company
| party to any such suit; the claim that
| any sucn testimony or evidence may tend
to criminate the person giving such evil
! dence shall not excuse such witness from
! testify1ng, but such evidence or testi-
! mOny shall not be used against such
! person on the trial of any criminal pro-
ceeding
Section 10, after declaring each act
| or omission in violation of this INSIDE
meanor to be punished by fine not ex-
ceeding $4,000, concludes with this pro-
visO: Provided that if the offense for
which any person shall be convicted as
aforesaid shall be an unlawful discrimin-
alton in rates, fares or charges for trans
portatiou Of passengers or property, such
person shall, in addition to the fine
hereinafter provided for, be liable to i'm
prisonment in the penitentiary for a term
Of not exceeding two years, or both
such fine and imprisonment, in the dis
erection of the court. -
These sections contain the law which 1t
is the object of the other sections of the
act to provide means to enforce It is
easy to perceive from reading them
that the intent and purpose of the law
is to place every person ana firm, every
business and industry. and every locality,
on a dead level plane of equality in the
matter Of railway service and benefit, so
far as it is practicable to do so with JUS
tice to the railroads and people, There
can be no doubt of the duty Of the
national government to protect the peo-
pie of the United States against the
power of a few men 1ess than half q
DOZEN who control the railway system
Of this country, by combination and pool
ing and the destruction of competition,
to exact eXorbitant freight rates, and by
discrimination between localities and
persons, to build up and enrich some and
pull down and destroy others, and
through this vast, Overshadowing intu-
ence and the wealth which flows to its
pOssessOrs from 1t, to control and cor
rupt the politics of the whole country as
they cOnfessedly have done in a number
of the great states of this Union. And if
the government legislated at all on the
subject, the railroads being public high
ways, and those who operate them COM
mon carriers, existing in a corporate ca
pacity by the grace and grant of the
equal before the law, it does seem log
zeal necessity that it should do so as is
done in this act, in the equal interest of
all, forbidding any discrimination IN
favor of or against any person, firm, or
locality, and requiring perfect equality,
as far as it IS attainable, in the distribu-
ton of the benefits of these public agen-
cies. It has long been the custom of
railway corporations to give low freight
rates to favored localities, and exact eX-
oribitant and uncOLscionabIe freights
from the smaller towns and wayside sta
tons, and in the same way by rebates
and other devices to give low rates to
persons and firms whom they favor,
while charging high rates Ito their COM
petitors in the same business, in both
classes of cases, making their eXactlons
of the localities and persons discrlmina-
ted against, many times over repay them
for concessions made to the favored par
ties and places. The Standard oil mo-
nopOIy, which casts its balefuI shadow
over every state and territory in the
Union, and brushes out and drives into
bankruptcy every person and firm rash
enough to attempt competition with it,
which sells oil in Texas at from Is to 20
cents per gallon which they sell in other
localities at and cents, have or did
have a specific contract with certain lead
ing railway managers to protect it by
their freight charges and other discrim-
nations against all competition. The
''dressed meat combination which
fixes arbitrarily, according to its own
Will and discretion. the prices at which
beef cattle shipped from Texas and else
where to market shall be sold, which
prices the shippers must accept or be
ruined, and which sends its products all
over the United States By rail, would be
impossible without the protecting freight
Determinations and the aid, co-Opera-
ton and participation of the railway
managers So with the sugar trust and
hundreds of other forms of combination
dependent upon railway transportation
for the distribution of their products,
through which great wealth is amassed
in few hands aud the great body of the
people are plundered.
The unbridled will and discretion of
railway managers which expressed its
power in these results before the passage
of any law on the subject, has, as far as
can be done by legal enactment, been
substituted by the law of equality to both
persons and places in railway service by
the Interstate commerce act. Pools,
combinations and trusts having destroyed
competition and repealed and reversed
the natural laws and aXioms of trade,
the country had to choose between the
supreme, arbitrary, irresponsible and
corrupting dominion of a few railway
managers over its most vital interests,
and legislation on the subject by con-
gress, to whom the constitution ex-
pressly delegates the power to regulate
commerce among the states, Gin my
Judgment, wisely chose the latter. The
Interstate commerce bill was pending for
many years before congress and the coun-
try. 1t was eXhaustiveIy discussed III
every phase and from every standpoint
by the press and by the ablest minds of
the country in and out of congress 1t
was fought 10y the railway corporations
over every inch of the ground, by all the
methods and devices known 20 such war
fare, with unsurpassed ability and per-
tinacity. They fought for great stake
no less than 10 retain in their own
hands, without accountability to any
authority, the supreme power to regulate
commerce among the states, which had
been solemnly lodged by the constitution
Of the United States in the hands of the
American congress. Inseparably con-
nected with this power was that to tax
or $50