Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-01

would be determined by ascertaiaing
what is profitable TO the company and
Judge Clark 5 contention for the right of
discrimination between shippers would
! be undisputed. But in the operation of
a public highway the state can per-
nit no such dIstinctions-the tax ought
to be and must be 'equal and uni
form -
Judge Clark says that a commission
viii do no good, because in reducing
rates they would encounter the principle
decided in the Florida case cited by him
Atlantic railroad VS.. the State-but
that principle would obstruct legislation
as wei IS the action of q commission
His argument, therefore, is that any
regulation of rates by the legislature dj-
rectly or by a commission, is futile. This
is il accordance with the principle on
which his essay prOceeGs-that a private
person in the management of his private
property shall have ''the legislative
bride off.
l have seen no report of the
Florida case, but I gather that it
is there held that the RACES shall
not be reduced below what will
realize to the company q fair interest
upon the investment. Judge Clark says
the amount of the investment cannot
that o commission with proper powers
might approximate the sum. but if it be
true that 1t cannot be ascertained, the
stock and debts would be taken as the
estimate. If the stock ana debts are
honestly issued and the proceeds honestly
applied to the construction, equipment
and repair of the road, their aggregate
would represent the investment. But it
is manifest that if Judge Clark is right in
his statement that the amount of the ia
vestment cannot be ascertained, and il
then in applying the principles Of the
Florida case the courts are to take the
aggregate of the stock and debts whether
honestly issued and created or not,
as the estimate of the cost
of the road, each company
has il in its power to fix a minimum. be-
low which neither the legislature nor a
commission can reduce rates, and this
minimum viii be high in proportion as
the management of the com pany is dis
honest. If this is the situation the pub
lie whose burdens are thus directly af-
fected, are as Immediately interested in
the amount Of stock issued and debts
created by a railroad company as it is
in the state or county Indebtedness.
Warwick might here have manifested
the impaTtiality Of his courage by bravely
suggesting the propuety of some legisla-
ton. He would say Justly that q county
commissioner should be put in stripe
who aids in creating against the county q
fictitious demand; but he OmIts to state
that purple is unbecoming to the railroad
official, who by like means increases the
public burdens.
Judge Clark cannot be ignorant of the
practice Of railroad companies in this
particular; he has been through a wreck
or two and knows that the only limit to
railroad Indebtedness in Texas is the
practicabiIIty of floating the bonds. For
this reason it is obviously true that divi-
dends upon stock are obsolete.
Judge Clark ought not to characterize
all who favor railroad legislation as
demagOgues. If his views succeed the
demagOgUes would all be on his side.
Give to the railroads the power TO tax
without other limit than that fixed by
themselves, the right to az eliminate be-
tween shippers, to punish eng %
and reward their friends, and thu un+
scrupulous seeker of public office would
court the railroad inhue and boast
and play his defiance of the people.
1t is not to the interest of the ooinpa-
MES to destroy the country through
which their roads run, but it is their in
terest to tax it to the utmost capacity
short of destruction. Those who fix the
rates of taxation are not citizens of
Texas and all important Texas roads are
small parts of large systems, and the
rates are fixed with q view to the advan-
tage not of our roads but of the systems.
The state has conferred upon them the
power to Cypress. Judge Clark believes
the power should be Unbridled, except
by enc laws Of trade, supplemented by
individual effort and cooperation. - L
believe that the power thus given by the
state should be carefully guarded, and
that the people should be protected from
its abuses, in obedience to the constitn-
ton, by laws enforced by adequate
penalties. -
The people believe that both the rights
and duties of the railroad companies in
the operation of the state s highways can
be defined by law; that they ought to be,
and that the laws should be enforced by
adequate penalties. -
The railroad companies have demon
strated to former legislatures the imprac--
ticability of the bills proposed to regulate
freights. They have also demonstrated
that it is unsafe to the people to leave the
regulation of freights to the companies
themselves. The situation evolves the
suggestion of commission and the ne
CeSSILy OF the authority IOT us creation.
1t may be, as Judge Clark threatens,
that capital will cease to flow into the
state unless we promise TO continue to
disregard our constitution, and by our
vote upon the proposed amendment i'm
pliedly promise that those operating our
future highways shall exercise the SOW
ereIgn right to tax unbridled. But on
the other hand it will be remembered
that a time will inevitably come when
we will wish to obey the instincts of a
free people and have a potent voice in
public matters and that IL is possible to
postpone the issue until ''the little finger
of monopoly Is stronger than the loins Of
the law. -
Judge Clark's utterances through
your columns have had a wide cireula-
ton, and his deservedly distinguished
ability and patriotism viii give them
great influence. 1 have waited for some
more experienced contrOversialist to re-
fute the dangerous doctrines announced
by him. As none has appeared 1 have
felt that there was no improperly in ad-
dressing you this letter. Very respect
fully, SAWNIE ROBERTSON.