The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-19
AS DR. STANTON SEES It.
The Commission Not Worried
by the Southern PaCifiC'S
Protest.
Grain Schedule to Be Prlnted at
Once and Served on the
Railroad.

The protest filed by ce-President c.
F. Croker of the Southern Pacific against
the action of the Railroad Commission in
making reduction of grain rates will not
worry the commission. according to the
views expressed by DR.. Stanton yesterday.
The board will go right on with its work,
he said. Commissioner Stanton observed
further:
The charge made by Mr. Croker that Mr..
La Rue is an interested person and therefore
disqualified seems to me to be pretty far
fetched.
Mr.. La Rue may be large shipper of grain
and greatly benefited by the reduction in rates,
but that does not disqualify him. If it did 1
think it would be hard to find any one in Cali
fornia who could act as an impartial Railroad
Commissioner. Every one in this State is di-
rectly interested in the lowering of rates. We
would all benefit by 1t. know l would. Ac-
cording to their argument every reduction in
passenger rates would benefit travellers and so
would unfit them for acting impartially as adj
justers of those rates. The protest carries no
weight with us.
l wish to say something about this reduction.
which is not generally known. Instead of the
grain shippers getting an per cent reduction
In rates this year many of them will receive
nearly 20 per cent reduction. There was q
lowering of grain rates in December, 1894. of
effect now. This, combined with the per
cent reduction, makes quite big lowering.
mat is the reason ola not vote LOT the 10 per
cent horizontal cut, as originally proposed by
Mr.. La Rue. 1t was excessive and might not
stick. 1 thought, too, that other commodities
needed attention and that all the reduction
should not be given grain.
1t was suggested to Commissioner STAN
ton that the railroad company evidently
intended to carry the fight into the courts,
and had fled its formal protest with that
end in view. His reply was:
don't see what good it would do Ito carry it
to the State courts The commission was con-
stitutionally created, and in its grant of pow
ers it is said expressly that its fixing OF rates
Now our reduction is just and fair, and the
State courts cannot help but follow the consul
tuition. AS to an appeal to the United States
courts, of course we hope to show that we have
pany of anything without due process of law.
Commissioner La Rue went to Sacra-
mento yesterday to have a schedule of
grain rates printed. AS soon as it is
printed it will be served on the railroad
officials, and when the grain-rate question
is off the ommissiOn's hands it will take
modities. The next meeting will be on
Wednesday.
Among the legal fraternity the senti-
ment was that the railroad company
would have an interesting fight on its
hands, as the protest against the act of the
commission, it was generally thought, is
equivalent to questioning the power of the
State to regulate common carriers within
it's limits.
Attorney General Fitzgerald declined to
discuss the protest of the railroad COM
pany. He remarked that he might be
called upon yet to give an official opinion.