Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-02-08
RAILROAD LEGISLATION
The Railroad Committee Listens to
an Argument Against the
Lindstrom Bill.
Gen. Hughes Dissects the Measure,
Pointing Out Its Unconstitu-
tional Features.
Quotations from Decisions of Courts
Bearing Directly on the Cues.
tions Involved.
Proposed Legislation that Experience
of Other States has Shown to
be Ubiquitous.
Railroad Legislation.

Llndstrom, OF Benson county, Hon.
Alexander Hughes. attorney for the
Northern Pacific, appeared and made an
argument in opposition to the passage of
the bill, and gave reasons why 1t should
not be passed.
The bill, he said, is simply the law
that was passed a few years ago in iowa
with slight changes. At the time of its
passage a populistic and democratic
political craze had swept over the state,
and this law was one of the germs of
diseased legislation left in it's wake.
Many of it's most injurious provisions
have since been practically annulled by
decisions of the courts. The la W, if
passed, would only give the commission
ers power to annoy, harrass and black
mail railroads, though, the speaker said,
he did not mean to insinuate that that
would be done by the present commits
s%ioners; it simply gave them power to
do go.
Mr.. Hughes brief was as follows:
House Bill No. 70, if enacted. would con-
fer no benefit upon the people of the state;
but would confer upon the commissioners
the power to harass, annoy, vex and black
mail the railroad companies. You can
confer no power upOn them to regulate
interstate commerce. Shipments from
any point in this state to any point without
the state, and shipments from any point
without the state to any point within the
state is interstate commerce.. The pro-
visions of this act only apply to business
beginning and ending in this state. The
volume of this business is exceedingly
small-the value of local business on all of
the roads is small. There is no complaint
from the people concerning the rates on
this class of business; nor is there any COM
plant as to the equipment and rolling
stock of the companies. You ride in better
cars, and on better equipped trains than
the people of the east do, as a rule.
The power OF a state legislature to fix
and regulate rates on shipments made from
one state to another state was before the
supreme court of the United States, in the
case Of the Wabash, st. L. & P. R. G. Co.,
VS.. the state of Illinois, and is reported in
118 U. S. 557, Book 30, page 244.
The railroad commission complained in
this case that the said railroad company
charged a greater rate per mile, on a ship
ment made from Peoria in that state, to
New York, than 1t did on a shipment of the
same class CT goods from Gilman in said
state to the city Of New York, and sought
to collect the alleged excessive charge for
the distance the goods were shipped in the
state of Illinois. The court held that such
a transportation is Commerce among the
states" even as to that part of the voyage
which Enc xxyithi1 f1n ctofn Of ltirprf
while it is not denied that there may be a
TRANSFORMATION OF goods which is begun and
ended within its limits, and disconnected
with any carriage outside of the state,
which is not Commerce among the states.'
Mr.. Justice Blatchford, speaking for the
supreme court of the United States, says:
"From what has thus been said, it is not
to be inferred that this power of limitation
aor regulation is itself without limit. This
power to regulate is not apoWerto destroy,
and limitation is not the equivalent of con-
tiscatiOn. Under pretense OF regulating
fares and freights, the state cannot require
a railroad corporation to carry persons or
property without reward. Neither can it
do that which in law amounts to taking of
private property for public use without
just compensation, or without due process
of law. . . The question of the rea-
sonableness of a rate of charge for trans
pOrtatiOn by a railroad company, involving
as it does the element Of reasOnableness,
both as regards the company and as re-
CARDS the public, is eminently a question
for judicial investigation, requiring due
process of law for its determination. If
the company is deprived of the power OF
charging reasonable rates for the use of its
property, and such deprivation takes place
in the absence Of an investigation by judi
cial machinery, it is deprived of the lawful
use of its property, and thus, in substance
and effect, OF the property itself, without
due process of law and in violation OF the
constitution of the United States; and in
80 far as it is thus deprived, while other
persons are permitted to receive reason
able profits upon their invested capital, the
company is deprived of the equal protec-
ton of the laws"
This act is based upon the provisions of
the Iowa law, which at the time. and ever
since has been regarded as the masterpiece
of %"crankism," fanaticism, populism, preju-
dice and injustice, and its provisions have
never been enforced, or attempted to be
enforced, except in minor particulars.
Upon its enactment, all railroad building
in the state ceased. Not a dollar could be
SCCulCu " lHtCcUL1CuV tllClClus CACCPU Ol
the main lines, doing a large interstate
commerce business. The character of
the equipment OF the roads, and the
character of the service thereon has mater
tally decreased, and is inferior since the
passage of the act. But conceding that
there were conditions existing in Iowa, at
the time of the enactment that justify such
a law, there is no like conditions existing
in this state; they are entirely different.
Iowa is a corn state. Corn, hogs, cattle
ana coal are its chief productions. Sioux
City, Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Dubuque.
Cedar Rapids and other places are great
distributing centers. Eighty-fve per cent
of its coal, seventy per cent of it's hogs, and
a large per cent of its cattle find a market
within the state. A very large percentage
of the earnings of the railroads of Iowa, is
for business beginning and ending within
he state, which in North Dakota is SO