The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1892-02-27

veStment or one dollar lOr MS LABOR
HI refuses to obey the order of the
commi ssion on the ground that its or
der amounts to con6scation, and per.
sists ia charging one tenth instead OF
Ie. twentieth prescribed by the com
mission. One of his customers sues
him for extorton. He attempts to
justify his charge, but is met with the
law which says that the order of the
commission is conclusive and the
court must so hold He appeals to
the court at Austin against the COM
mission and in the meanwhile persists
In charging the one tenth because he
is not able to operate his gin for a
smaller sum. After tedious delays,
during the progress of which, each
day, he is subjeoting himself to addi
tional penalties, and these penalties
are accommodating mountain high upon
him, his case comes to trial and the
court determines and adjudges that he
is mistaken, aud that one.twentieth is
u reasonable rate for ginning his
neighbours cotton. What position is
he left in? The penalties will more
than eat up his plant, and he finds
himself stripped and robbed of his
property simply because he wanted to
exercise the right of every free man
and one guaranteed to him by the
constitution of his State, the right to
appeal to the courts for the protection
of his property by due process of law.
Or take the other view of it. Suppose
he obeys the order of the commission
and changes his price from one tenth
to one-twentieth and thereupon ap.
peals to the courts to determine
whether the one.teRth was unreasona-
BILE or not, and after tedious delays a
judgment is finally reached in the Su-
preme Court determining that he is right
and that one-tenth is reasonable
price. But, in the meanwhile he has
been operating for one.twentieth un.
der the order Of the commission.
What becomes of him in that svent?
he has been operating his property at
a rulnous price, to the detriment and
sacrifice of his material interests, and
when vindicsted at last by the highest
court in his State, the damage is done
and there is no means of reparatiou,
for the State does not promise to pay
him In case the commission has de.
clded wrong.
Thus you see, fellow.cit izens, the
situation with reference to this vast
interest built up in our midst upon
our invitation, and upon a guarantee l
Of the same protection that our own {
people should receive under the law; {
an interest which in building itself up {
has built US up also, adding hundreds {
't millions to our taxable values aud &
nestlmable acquisitions to our private '
property, advancing values, bringing ,
and prosperity in its train 6
and enabling US to enjoy at our homes
he comforts derived from the markets
If the whole world, is denied the priv. i
lege accorded the humblest citizen of q
he State, for he can appeal to the =
'ourts organized fer his protection i
without let or hindrance, without de- 7
avs, without embarrassment, without a
,ains, without penalties. But this |
great Interest, which is not entitled to O
my more consideration than that &C. g
corded the humblest citizen, is, at $
east, entitled to the same considera- s
ion. This bill was ingeniOusly framed I
o cut railroads off from their consti- v
utional right. 1t was designed to 8
ntimidate them from appealing to the p
courts for protection. Its purpose was '
o arbitrarily force them to obey the e
riders of the commission without ap- a
zeal. v
If this be that due process of law a
to us by the constitution y
or the protection of property, we had 6
est amend the constitution and make P
more stringent, for this is a sacred t
light. Away back in the thirteenth i
entury our English ancestors took P
rbitrary power by the throat which p
ad been selling and denying justice, a
nd wrung from royal authority this C
declaration: eve will sell to no man; t
re will not deny or defer to any man p
ither justice or right" And our PEG. u
lie, in framing the organic law of this S
'tate for our government studiously p
bserved this precept of human lib r,
rty which has been handed down to il
$ for many generations, and declared I