The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-02-16
A BIG QUESTION
Union Pacific and Its Debt to
Government.
Disposition in Congress to Let
it Rest
SAYS MR.. CULLOM
Chances Against Any Railroad
Legislation at Present.

VVAsHnGToN, d. C., Feb Especial. u
Senator CulIom says with some positive
ness that ali those who are hoping for on
dreadIng any early or radical legislation on
railroads may as well abandon their hopes
or their fears. for it is the unanimous lncll-
nation of those charged with the matter
that it should be allowed to sweat. as il
were, for TWO or three years.
Senator CulIona's View.
sit is, IN fact, impossible says be- Gin
view of the present extraordinary cOndi-
tions, for any one to tell what the final eff
feet of previous legislation viii he. So the
matter must rest in inuocuous desuetude
until pooling and com bina6ions, bankrupt-
cy and receiverships. local and general linn
iratiOus Of rates, tariff reform and the con-
tinual decline of prices have done their per-
feet work. and that viii not probably be
until after the next presidential election. p
In shorb. The chances are decidedly against
amy railroad legislation of consequence
within the next three years Ut was never
intended, says the senator. ITO bind the rail-
roads any more stringently than they were
bound or ought to have been bound by the
common law. What they were doing thar
was complained of was really against the
common law-such as favorinr one shipper
above another, masking outrageous disc1im-
nations against certain places, charging
more ia proportion to the short haul than
the long haul, and the ike. Amy sufferer
by any of these proceedings could have
brought suit and righted himself by COM
mon law-tbat is, he could have done it in
theory and the contemplation of law But
as q matter Of fact sensible men never tried
it,
1.-THE fight Of the man with a railroad
was such an obviously one sided thing that
the man wouldn't enter into it. and accord
ingly if was decided that the government
should assume the duty. But it was very
carefully provided that the government, as
quasi agent Of the aggrieved party, should
have no. greater powers than the agglieved
would have had at common law.
The Interstate Comm cree Law.
''AIy attention was first called to the sub
iect when i was speaker of the Illinois
house of representatives. 1t fell to my lot
to appoint the committee which laid the
foundation for our law on that subject.
We provided for a railroad commission. tit
did good work SO far as It's powers extend
ed and the law is still in force. But by the
time Z became governor IL was made ap-
parent that state authority could do bus
little. They met us at every turn with the
claim that they were doing interstate bush
ness.
''when came here. Mr.. Reagan was al
ready at work in the house but in the sen-
ate I had the great advantage, or disad-
vantage, of finding perfectly fallow ground
Very few had Thought about 10 at All, and
the senate as q body cared nothing about It.
So [ had it all my own way for awhile.
When the matter got into conference, my
bin was practically adopted instead of that
of Mr. Reagan, except in one clause. Z
never did a harder summers work in my
life than chat ia which visited the various
cities and collected the facts and. while It
does not become me to compliment m yself,
Yet in one respect I did surprise myself
The railroad men were even better satisfied
with the report on more comp lmentary IN
spelling Of it than those adverse to them.
while the latter We're satisfied
81 81