The Russellville Democrat., 1892-06-23
THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE
 LAW.

The good and the evil in the in-
 terstate commerce law have come to
 be quite clearly defined and separ- able, and there is no sense in the
 demand for the repeal of the law as
 whole. The prohibition of pool ing, so far as it was obeyed, un. l doubtedly tended to promote consol-
 idations and traffic agreements like
 that between the Chicago and North
 western and the Union Pacific and
 to intensity competition in other
 cases, whether to the benefit of the
 public or otherwise, the pub
 lie will find out some
 time in the future, probably.
 The rigid application of the long
 and short haul section has doubtless
 done harm to particular roads in some few cases, and to some sec tions of the public served by those
 roads. Whether those whose inter- ests have thus been sacrificed for the benefit of the larger public
 which has been benefited by the fourth section can be induced to submit always to the inequality re- mains to be seen
 These two features, broadly speaking, embrace the serious ob- jections. All other criticisms of moment refer to sections which have failed because the commission could not or would not enforce them. Publicity of rates is good, and reforms have been accom- plished by it. But the commission needs fifty members instead of five if it is to en- force this section. Unjust discrimination is possible even with the utmost publicity of tariffs and honesty in using them, and many evils of this sort will always be be- yond the power of any law or com mission to cure; they must be left to the action of natural laws, but it is noticeable that the worst discrim- nations now complained of are those perpetrated by direct violation of the section requiring publicity. The whole difficulty lies in the doing of acts admitted to be wrong, in def ance of law admitted to be right. Why repeal such lawi It would be just as reasonable to repeal all tax laws because there are numerous tax dodgers. Tax assessors have thus far been unable to enforce justice when half the property owners are liars, and five interstate commerce com missioners will be unequal to the task of refining hundreds of railroad officers into line as long as the in- diyidual states promote disorder by building too many railroads, and congress abets the evil by letting them fight each other with barbar- ous weapons.
 Clearly numerous things are be- yond the power even of the most capable commission, but when we consider the limitation of salary and the demands of politics which hamper the president in appointing commissioners, we must make the list of impossibilities still larger. It must be remembered that some of the weightiest criticisms of the com mission have been those based on the conviction that certain de- cisions made by it were tinged with political motives, but that is no fault of the interstate commerce law. One of the best features of that law is that providing for the commission. The best fune- tion of the commission is to act as a | lubricant between the railroads and | the public. In this the law is based i on the best previous laws of the kind, those of England and Massa- chusetts. But the strength of those | laws lay chiefly in the ability and | character of the commissioners ap- pointed under them, and we must not blame the law because the con-