Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-20
and therefore they had the right to VIC

and therefore they had the right to vic
ate it.
Now ask you,-and it does not need any
lawyer to answer this question-what
cases out OF tena Can citizen 90 into
court prepared with witnesses to
provo that such rate is reasonable
Can ne do it, Has any private citizen, or
Will he ever have, at hand the necessary
evidence 70 prove that the commission rate
is reasOlablel No. But pie railroad could
come into court with cloud OF so-calied
expert witnesses. with thousand of their
employees, If necessary, and they swearing
TO order, would prove over the citizen that
each and every rate of the commission,
from beginning 70 end, in every law suit
| that was tried for the violation of the law,
! was an unreasonable rate; and even If the
juries and courts should hold to the contrary
! against their witnesses. they would then
appeal the case, and some of you know
| what the effect of an appeal generally is in
the state of Texas. Keep the case hung up
until the shipper had died probably. This
| kind of procedure, If allowed, would emas-
| culate the law. The law would be worth
less with such an amendment The man
! VINO proposed this amendment knew what
| its effect would be. He says, that section
Of the law which declares that the rates
| when fixed by the commission are concius-
| i've in 4 court of law in q collateral pro-
4
| himself upon record as saying that
| the supreme court will hold that
clause of the law to be
unconstitutional I say if the supreme
court OF Texas does hold that clause uncon-
stitutlonal it VIII be the first court in the
United States OF America which has so
held. There is no principle so well settled
as that which forOids a collateral attack
| upon JUDGMENT of court Of competent
| jurisdiction, and this commission is made
! the tribunal to determine that question, as
| your county court is made the court to
finally determine the result of a county
| election. Its Judgment IS conclusive. The
legislature had the right to make it
! finalitY. But are the railroads deprived of
| all remedy? No. They are given not only
| the right to an appeal, but the right to in
| stitute direct proceeding whenever the
| commission puts rate on their schedule
which they deem unreasonable. They can
| bring suit against the state of Texas in the
| district court of Travis county and have
| the question determined before the court;
| and not only that, such cases have prece-
| dence, not only in the trial court, but in the
appellate court, over all other cases.
| Well, l say these amendments were pro-
| posed, nineteen of them. They were all
laid aside; and we have now as the result
of the efforts of Hogg and the legislature
| the graudest and the best commission law
that was ever enacted by any state. Ap-
| plausel. Enacted after careful considera-
| ton, by the best lawyers within the state,
and its force and efficacy is proven when
|. this man who attacks this bill before you
says that the railroads, under his advice
and direction, would not appeal to the
supreme court against the law, but would
rather fight it before the people.
But, fellow citizens, let Us hurry on and
| get down to more recent events. After this
law had been enacted, the governor of this
state, in fulfllment Of the duty laid upon
him by the law, appointed three citizens of
your state as railway commissioners. And
l submit to you; submit to the people of
Parker county, if he could have made a
! better choice than the three gentlemen who
now are the railway commissioners of your
state. There is that noble old tribune of
the people, John II. Reagan. TGreat ap-
plause. He has always stood up for the
peoples rights. He has been for the peo-
pie. and though he has been attacked and
villifed and DETAINED by men who are
younger and ought to know better, l say
that the little finger Of old John H. Reagan
is worth the whole carcass of his villitiers.
W. 3. Mclean, an honest, true and accom-
pished lawyer and gentleman. L. L. Eos
ter, a practical statistician, a man &C
quainted with facts and figures. AS able q
body of men. in my opinion, as could be OBJ
tanned in Texas. Doubtless there are
many men in Texas who may be as able as
they, but there are none ADLER. What
have they donel They went to their work
in a conservative manner. They summoned
before them the different railroads and
their officers in the state. They heard both
sides. They have been slow, it is true, IN
rearranging rates because this kind
of work necessarily involves delay. They
found that the complaints of the
people were justified by the facts that
excessive freight rates were being charged,
and that the people were being ground
-
those rates. Their work so far, and they
are not half through, has had wonderful
and beneficial effect upon the state. Just
take it, for instance, in its effects upon your
own town. l have the official tables in my
hand, but have not time to read them in
full, and 1 give you the averages. In the
first place it has made an average reduction
on cotton seed. hear that there is about
to be establishedin your midst cotton seed
oil mill l am not acquainted with the gen.
tlemen who proposes to establish 1t, but l
ask them, and do it at venture, if they
are in this audience, If they are willing to
go back to the old rates and build 4 cotton
mill in Weatherford7 A voice from the
owner: No. The gentleman says no. Now
what is the average reduction in cotton |
seed from places accessible to Weatherford
Nine dollars aud half per car. I say that |
by this reduction the commission has estab- |
liShed that industry II has allowed your |
sell their cotton seed, and get their money |
at home. 1t has put on foot an industry in |
your town which will give employment TO |
the idle men and to the working men. 1t |
viii bring families here,
Take another item-salt.. There is re- |
duction of Sl2 per car on salt from all |
points. Lumber, SS.25 per car. These are
the reductions made by the commission.
Rates on coal have been reduced Sl.25 per
car; rates on brick, s. per car; on wood, |
$3.50 per car. And then take the great
item of mill products. Here you have, if 1 |
remember right, two Touring mills. "a |
voice, Three" Three. 1 cannot give |
you the average reduction on mill products,
simply for the reason that they are not
given in mileage reduction, but are given
from the points which buy from Weather
ford. But, for instance, the rate to Nc
Kinney is reduced S25; on -four, meal, hon.
my and grits, S25. 60 per car load Rates on
grain, bran and mill feed reduced sic per
car load and every town you have any
connection with that you can sell your
mill products to, there has been an average
reduction appro2Imating the figures I have |
Ask your millers here, and I know
none of them, whether they are willing |
that this commission shall be abolished and
that the old rates shall be restored. IA |
miller answered no.
These are business questions, men of
Weatherford. These are questions that |
enter into your very heart; enter into the