Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-04
HOSTILE" RAILROAD LEGISLA-
TON,

| 1ION.
President Ashley of the wabash rail-
road, in his annual report just out, dis
courses at some length on the current
rates of traffic, and the general tendency
towards reduction of the same. The re-
duction, he claims, is partly voluntary
AM partly compulsory. Voluntary, be-
cause the roads are always eager to adopt
whatever means will increase their ton
mage; and compulsory, because the in
terstate commerce law prohibits the
practice of pooling, which, although he
does not say SO, is q favorite remedy
among the roads for preserving rates and
preventing competition reduction and
| rate wars.
The amount of reduction in the past
| quarter as compared with the same
period in 1889 is estimated at 20 per
cent. In the light of such result, Mr..
Ashley can see but little, if any, use for
state legislation against railroads; "hos-
tile legislation he terms it. "As a
rule,' he says, s'the complaints
against railway companies, on which OBJ
jectionable laws are founded, are neither
supported nor justified by facts That
is rather sweeping statement, and by
its point and direotnsss indicts every
state IN the Union that boasts law
touching railroad rates, of officious in
| termeddling, to say the least of it.
! Even congress, which enacted the inter-
state law, and the president who signed
| it, do not escape the implied oensure.
While he considers the fixing by states
| of maximum rates as "superfluous and
unnecessary he does not object to
Hjust and intelligent supervision in
order to "protect the people against the
exactions of common carriers, and to
prevent unjust Determinations. This
concession. which is really all there is in
the case, seems trifie contradictory OF
the statement about "hostile legisla-
tion.' If there be any hostile legisla-
ton against railroads, it must be found in
that part of it intended to 'protect the
people against the exaotions of common
carriers, and to prevent unjust diserim-
nations each of which Mr.. Ashley
admits railroads may be guilty Of. If
any injustice be done by such regula-
tions or laws, it is In their extensi on be-
yond the needs of the case, and is not
designed, but merely aociden tai and
causuaI Can common carriers that
Toll he x,of la
bear,'' and that discriminate, often
recklessly, say as much in extenuation
of their offenses?
To illustrate the resultsl of "hostils
legislation against railroads, he points
to the number of trunk lines and other
roads in Iowa, Kansas and Texas, driven
by il into the hands of receivers. That
is news indeed, at least with respect to
Kansas and Texas, in which states what
ever roads have in late years passed into
the hands of receivers, did so largely
through the fundamentally of railroad
spectators and railroad wreckers. This
fact is as notorious as any extant. Mr.
Ashley seems to have overlooked it en-
tirely. Can it be that he has never
heard of that modern vandal who grows
rich from the spoils of railroad wreeking?
If the rest of Mr.. Ashley's statements
were no better founded than this one,
his report would be as worthless as last
years almanac. The railroad laws
neither of Kansas or Texas have ever
thrown q single railroad into q receiver
ship, Mr.. Ashley to the contrary not
withstanding. In neither state has
there been nor. is there likely to be. any
"hostile legislation" against railroads.