The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-01-22
RAILROAD COMMISSION VS.. THE
PEOPLES INTEREST.
Correspondence Of the Progressive Farmer.
GOIDsRORO N G.

The Railroad Commission as at pres
ent organized, consists of three mem
bers, at an annual salary of g, 900 eacl
per year, with a clerk at 81, 200 pc,
year, a total tax upon the people o
$1,000 yearly.
The men who constitute the presen
Commission are: Jno. Wilson, Of Burkt
county, Chairman; term expires April
1899. E. Q. Beddingfield, Of Wake
term expires April, 1897. 7. w. Mason
of Northampton; term expires April
1895.
This Commission was organized al
the result of the Alliance demand fol
such a commission, upon the supposl
ton that such q commission under a
proper State statute, would have the
power to enforce such findings Of the
Commission as in their judgment the
evidence before them in any particular
8 justified, they should make against
the transportation companies within
the State.
The bill creating this Commission
embodied the necessary language to
vest the required power in the Com
mission, if it had been as q fact, the
power Of the State legislature to vest
such authority in a simple board of
railroad commissioners, and which it
has since appeared it had not, for in
the decision made by Justice Jackson
in the Kentucky Bridge Company case,
rendered at Louisville, KY, in January,
1889, it was held that the Inter-Stat
Commerce Commission was not a court,
and that it's findings of facts are not
findings of a judicial tribunal, and that
when it seeks to enforce its DEGREES
through the fundamentally of the
Circuit courts of the U. s. as provided
by law, such courts must re try each
case so as to determine whether the
order of the Commission sought to be
enforced is q proper and lawful order"
The de cision of Justice Jecksonprac-
tically reduced the railroad commits
sion to a court, before which ques-
tions of interest relating to trans
portation are debated, but which, al
though passing through the form of a
judicial determination, has no power
to enforce any of its orders until the
courts Of the State, after another trial,
concurs with it's findings.
The decision of the Circuit Court of
the US. sitting at Chicago, that Con
gress cannot constitutiOnRlly require
the Federal courts to use their process
to compel the giving Of testimony be-
fore q non judicial tribunal, " following
in that particular, the decision In the
Kentucky case, thus depriving the
Railroad Commissioners of the various
States of the authority of investigation
and of compelling the production of
books and papers; and thereby sill
further stripped such commissioners of
the larger part Of the power supposed
to be vested in them by the statute
creating the Commission.
Mr.. Simon Sterne, q practicing law
yer In New York city of considerable
prominence as a writer, recently wrote
in the Forum of the Railroad Commits
sion as follows:
"Acommission, therefore, consisting
of reasonable and intelligent gentlemen
who are without authority to make
any arbitrary rulings, or of enforcing
them by direct action If they should
make them; whose investigating func
tons have, in large proportion, been
tatiOns of the last three years; whose |
mandates have in several instances
been set at defiance; and who, since
the enactment of the law, have, year
by year, been deprived by decisions of
the Federal Courls, of almostt the whole
Of their controlling moral force-can
not be held responsible for the failure
OF the Railroad Commissions work to
measure up to the necessity of the hour
In protecting the interest of the masses
against the combined corporate interest
of the transportation companies.
With the evidence of the weakness
OF Railroad Commission, contained
In these decisions of the courts cited
herein, it is the duty of our legislature
to abolish entirely the present boosted
tribunal, that taxes our people g. 200 |
yearly while its powers for good is
practically nil.
If the legislature, after aboliahing
the present Commission, would re or
ganlze and constitute a Judicial tri-
Dunal, consisting of a judge, solicitor
ana clerk, together with three commits
stoned assistants, whose duties should |
De to supervise all transportation com
panies, including express companies
and telegraph lines within the State, |
hear complaints, prepare and present
to the court all irregularities reported
tothem as commissioner of the judicial
tribunal and see that orders and find
ings of the court in such cases as NAV
be passed upon by the court are obeved.
The judge and solicitor of this court to
be vested with the same power as anv
Of the Superior Court Judges in the