The Portland daily press., 1895-12-31
INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
The Annual Report Of the Commits
sion.

Ine annual report OF the C0mmlS-
sion.
Recommend Number of Changes in the
Law-Rrilroad Accidents Have Been
Fewer the Past Year Than Usual.
Washington, December 30.-The ninth
annual report of the Interstate Com
merce commission will soon be issued. 1t
discusses first the difficulty of securing
convictions for offenses against the law.
The cases are rare and exceptional, if
not accidental, in which offences made
misdemeanors by the act can be proven
by other testimony than that of one of
the guilty parties, which testimony is
provided for in section $50 OF the Revised
Statutes. The decision of the Supreme
} Court in the case of Councilman, wit
ness who refused to testify before q grand
jury on the alleged2ground that his testi-
mony would tend to orimlnate him, was
that section 86U of the Revised Statutes
! is unconstitutional and void. The over
throw OF the statute, which had been in
force for 25 years and applied as well to
all other m1Sdemeanors as to those aris-
ing under the act to regulate commerce,
rendered proof of guilt under the act i'm
practicable without further legislation.
and several pending indictments were
necessarily dismissed. The Supreme
Court said that where testimony Of this
character is required by law, the statute
must afford absolute immunity against
further prosecution of the witness for the
offense TO which the question relates.
The commission recommended additional
Legislation in conformity with that
which the Supreme Court said
would be valid, andson February IL, 1898,
subsequent to such recommendations,
Congress passed an act-set forth in full
in the report-whioh provides, among
other things, that 'sno person shall be
prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or
forfeiturea for or on account OF any tran
saction, matter or thing oncerning which
he may testify" About year later it
was held, in the United States District
Court for the Northern District Of I'LL
nois, in the case of one James @. James
who refused to testify on the ground
that his testimony would tend to crinli
nate him, that the act Of February IL,
1898 required testimony which would
tend to criminate the witness and that
the act was therefore unconstitutional.
The governments could not appeal and 1T
was impossible to obtain decision of
the supreme Court upon the question
until it could be raised and different
ruling secured In another Jurisdiction.
The commission reported the facts to
Congress and recommended that the law
be SO amended as to allow the govern
ment to appeal to the Supreme Court in
such cases. After a delay of nearly two
years the question was raised in the
Western DISTRICT of PENNSYLVANIA in the
tostestify before the. u nited States grand
jury in relation to the alleged giving of
rebates by officers Of the Allegheny Val
ley Railroad Company on the ground that
his testimony might tend to criminate
himseilf Brown was held for contempt
by the United States district judge. This
ruling was afterwards sustained by the
Circuit Court and the act of February II,
1898, held constitutional. The case is now
pending in the Supreme Court, and has
been set down for hearing on January
9th next. 1t thus appears that for more
than five years last past 1t has been i'm
practicable to obtain testimony on which
to enforce the penal provisions Of the aot,
though few convictions of no great i'm
pOrtanoe have been secured upon testi-
mony casual and accidental.
RAILWAY ACCIDENTS,
During the year ending June 80, 1894,
1928 railway employees were killed, and
23, 422 were injured. Compared with the
previous year this shows decrease of
904 in the number of employees killed
and s. S07 in the number of employees jim
jured. One reason for this large decrease
In casualty is the reduction, to the extent
OF SO, 394 in the number of employees. No
statistics covering the year ending June
30, 1896. have as yet been complied. 1t
is known, however. that the equipment of
oars with hand-holds and grab-irons has
, been rapidly going on, that the majority
OF all cars are now SO equipped. and that
large number of oars and locomotives
hay al hna tad
and automatic coupiers during the year.
1t is believed therefore that the ratio of
accidents for the year ending June 30,
1895, will show still further decrease For
the year June 80, 1894 the mum ber of en-
ployes for each employe killed was 42S,
asscompared with -320 in the preyioussyear.
The number Of trainmen employed for
one killed was l56 as compared. with 115
In the previous year. This is marked
improvement and is believed to be due
to the use of better safety equipment.
The Supreme Court Of the United
t States has held in cases cited that the
D hazardous character of the business of
special legislation with respect to railroad
corporations, having for it's object the
protection of their employees as we'll as
the safety Of the public and that it is
incumbent upon promoters of works of
/ necessity or utility, where some occupa-
Uiou as dtt6uUctl Wluu uhug0f OIL llI6, DOdy
or lipb, to provide all appliances readily
: attainable known to science for the pre-
vention of accidents, and that neglect to
provide such appliances will be regarded
as proof Of oulpable negligence.
The amendments recommended. if
adopted, would impose no new liability
, upon the railroad companies, but they
would make more effective the general
provisions of the law respecting safety
appliances.
TRAFFIC AGREEMENTS.
) Under this head the subject of poolinlg
of freights and division of earnings is
1 considered, ,and various traffic agreements
are mentioned and discussed. The agree
| ment of the Central Traffic Association
for division of east-bound dead freight.
dressed meaUs and live stock from Chica-
go, in effect from May /, 1894, is de-
! scribed as being virtually a pooling
agreemenJ, "because the parties theret0
engage to divide among themselves, in
! rti 1,o I,