The advocate., 1891-06-10


railways and. the people has been pre-
sented as an outline Of opinions, In which
the technical, legal and constitutional
arguments are omitted, which precedee
the statement Of the bill becoming q law
OF Minnesota on March 6, 1871, which
the railway companies never put in force,
or in the slightest degree paid any atten-
tion to its provisions, but used 1t as
scapegOat for the extrsvagant estimates
of earnings, which they had made in the
east, so that they could augment the
price OF their securities and thus obtain
more money to be used to extend their
lines.
"The Struggle Of the Managers" is
neatly and nicely portrayed In the Wis
consln legislation of the session Of
1894. The letter Of millionaire Alex
ander Mitchell, of Milwaukee, Of April
2S, 1874, to Governor William r. Taylor,
Is furnished In full, which comes as a
valuable reminlscence to those who
watched the struggles of seventeen
years ago, when National Banker Mitchell
secured the legal opinions of the eminent
jurists, Benjamin r. Curtis, of Boston,
and William Maxwell EvSrts, of New
York. And here is the unfulflled proph-
ecy of the sagaclous Mitchell:
That the law has effeotually destroyed all
future railroad enterprises, no one who is
acquainted with it's effect in money centers
will for q moment doubt. That, however,
do not care to discuss at this time, as the
state has an undoubted right to prevent a
further extension Of it's railroad system if it
chooses, although, as citizen of the state,
I deeply regret such short.sighted policy.
Under the head of Fundamental
Principles" Mr.. Stickney states:
Whenever political issue supposed to
have been settled by the civil war is made
use Of in modern politics, il is styled in de-
rision, "the bloody shirt" Since the close
Of the war, whenever the party generally
dominant has blundered, or whenever
measures have been ninaugurated which were
liable to bring that party intO disrepute, the
"bloody shirt" has been brought out to claim
the attention Of the public and conceal the
errors Of the party. The granger laws"
have served the purpose of q "blOOdy shirt"
to conceal incompetence in railway man
agement for twenty years, at least.
Reference Is made to decisions Of the
supreme court of the United States In
1875, and In OStober, 1890, as to the con-
stitutlon of legislative regulation Of rail-
way rates, and In the chapters on "The
Senate Committee" and on "The Inter
State Commerce Act" there are many
sage reflections, among which are these:
The machinery which the interstate law
provided for it's enforcement is wholly in
adequate and insignificant, compared to the
herculean task which was assigned TO it. Il
consisted Of commission TO be known as
the Interstate Commerce Commission,
composed of Ave commissioners, having its
principal Office in Washington; and the
small sum Of 100000 for the fiscal year was
appropriated for all the purposes Of this act,
including salaries Of the commissioners and
their secretary and employees.
Such are the physically insignificant
means provided to set law in force, which
by its provisions was intended to revolu-
tionize against the active opposition Of the
managers, the methods Of conducting
transportation on more than 5000