The record-union., 1894-07-14
THIS is THE LAW.
Judge Ross Defines What a Mail
Train Is.
A Clear Statement Which Must Re-
move Misapprehension
On That Peint.

United States Judge Ross Of the Los
Angeles district hss delivered the follow
ing supplemental charge to the United
States Grand Jury;
Gentlemen Of the Jury: One of your
number has asked for further instruc-
tions respecting the law bearing upon
the subject under your investigation.
You have already been informed by the
court that under and by virtue Of the
provisions of the statutes of the United
States, all railroads or parts of railroads
which are now in operation are post roads
and that every railroad company in the
United States whose road is operated by
steam Is authorized to carry upon and
over its road, boats, bridges and ferries all
passengers, troops, Government supplies.
mails. freight and property on their way
from any State to another State. and to
connect with roads of other States so as
to form continuous lines for the trans
portation of the same to the place of des-
tination, and that railroad which Is
link in through line of road by which
passengers and freight are carried into
State from other States, and from that
State to other States, is engaged in the
business of interstate commerce, and that
every combination or conspiracy in re-
straint of such trade or commerce is by
statute declared to be illegal, and the per-
sons SO combining or conspiring are by
law guilty of the commission of crime,
whether they be railroad Presidents,
managers, Superintendents, conductors,
engineers. brakemen or fremen.
Commerce with foreign countries and
among States strictly considered" said
the Supreme Court of the United States
In the County Of Mobile VS.. Kimball, 102
U. s. 691-702, Consists in intercourse and
traffic, including in these terms naviga-
ton and the transportation and transit OF
persons and property as well as the pur-
chase, sale and exchange accommodates"
Mr.. Pomeroy, in his work on constitu-
tional law, Section 378, referring to the
Eignification of the word commerce."
says: sit includes the fact of intercourse
and of traffic and the subject matter of
intercourse and traffic. The fact of in
tsrceurse and traffic, again, embraces all
the means, instruments and places by
and in which intercourse and traffic are
carried on, and, further still, compre-
hsnds the act of carrying them on at these
places and by and with these means. The
subject matter of intercourse or traffic
may be either things. goods, chattsls.
merchandise or persons. All these may,
therefore, be regulated"
Congress has passed laws to regulate
such commerce. thereby requiring carri-
ers engaged in such transportation of
persons and property to transport them
in accordance with and subject to the
provisions of the Act, and has provided
among other things that any common
carrier subject to the provisions of the
Interstate Commerce Act, or whenever
any such common carrier Is q corpora
tion. any director or officer thereof. or
any receiver, as trustee, lessee, agent or
person acting for or employed by such
corporation, company, person or party
shall willfully omit or fail to do any act,
matter or thing required to be done by
tbs Act, or shall cause or willfully suffer
or permit any act. matter or thing so di-
or shall aid or abet such omission or
failure, shall be deemed guilty of mis-
demsanor and punished in certain pre-
Ecribed way.
In respect to the mails of the United
States. it is declared by statute that any
person who shall knowingly and will
fully obstruct or retard the passage of the
mail. is guilty of crime and shall be
punished. 1t is further provided by
statute of the United States that the
Postmaster General shall in all cases de-
eide upon what trains and in what man
ner the mails shall be conveyed, and that
officer has, through his subordinates,
designated for the Southern California
Railway Company and the Southern Pa
cific Railway Company in this judicial
district the regular passenger trains of
those roads for the carrying of the
United States mails. Neither of those
companies is by law required to
run any other trains than their regular
passenger trains for the carrying of the
mails, and their failure to do so is not q
violation of any law of the United States.
But on all their regular passenger trains,
whether they be local or through trains.
they are required to carry the mails, and
their failure or refusal To do so is unlaw-
full. As respects interstate commerce,
railroad companies engaged in such COM
msrce should, unless prevented by cir
cumstances beyond their control, run
heir trains in reasonable manner, and
So often as the ordinary business of COM
msrce requires
at the same time, as owners of the
property. they are legally and justly en-
titled TO determine how many and what
cars and engines shall constitute their
trains, and whsn the composition of
trains as usually and ordinarily made up
by them is reasonable and appropriate to