The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-31
TRY TO GET TOGETHER
Advances Made by Railroads
Concerning Freight Rates.
Willing That Railroad Board
Should Make a Schedule.
Commissioner billiard and Gov. Leedy
Doubt the Sincerity of the Offer.

The railroads have submitted pro-
position to the state board of railroad
commissioners that a conference of the
railroad traffic managers and shippers
be called for the purpose of agreeing
on a schedule of freight rates which the
board should promulgate as the judg-
| ment of the commissioners.
Since the decision of the United States
supreme court in the tranSnnisSOuri case
the attorneys of the railroads have
been seeking a way to get together on
a schedule of rates which would not be
contrary to law and they have cOnclu-
ded that the only way this can be done
is for the railroad commissioners to
make the schedule. From time to time
since the meeting of the railroad attOr-
neys in Chicago, suggestions of this
kind have been made to the railroad
commissioners, the desire of the rail-
road attorneys being that the PROPOSE
ton should emanate from the state
rather than from the railroads But,
the commissioners were unwilling to
take the initiative; they even doubted
the policy of interference by the board
in the absence of any statute authoriZ-
ing them to act. Still, they were will
ling to consider the proposition, but
since Commissioner Lowe was so soon
to retire from the board to be succeed
ed by Mr.. Lewelling, Commissioners
billiard and Campbell concluded that it
would be better to postpone the matter
/ until &se@norrow when Mr.. Lewelling
will become a member of the board.
But the railroad people were impa-
tient and late yesterday afternoon a.
himself before Commissioners billiard
and Campbell and said that he was
authorized by the railroads to make
| the proposition. There was no discus
sion of the subject at that time. Mr..
| Hurd stated his proposition briefly and
departed. Afterward Mr. Hurd public
| ly stated that while he had submitted
! the proposition formally it really had
| emanated from Mr.. billiard who had
| come to him soon after the Chicago
meeting and offered the suggestion.
! This Mr.. billiard denies. He said this
! morning:
This proposition was not my sug-
! gestiOn. The first 1 heard of it was
from Commissioner Lowe. But it was
thrown out by him simply as a sugges-
! ton and while of course we discussed
it among ourselves we never thought Of
submitting it q proposition to the
railroads. Something may come of Mr..
/ Hurd's proposition but I am afraid the
! premature publicity he has given to the
matter Will kill it and nothing Will be
! done. 1 don't like the phase he has put
on it. 1 want it understood that this is
a railroad proposition.
We are not begging terms of the
railroads nor are we as board seeking
to offer our good offices in straighten-
ing out the tangle the supreme court of
the United States has gotten them into
have no doubt that if the railroad
people had come to US without herald
ing their proposition to the public
something cOulQ nave D66n QOne. But
here stands MIR. Hurd's statement that
the railroad commissioners acting for
! the state are seeking to do, without
authority of law, what they have op-
posed our doing by statutory sanction.
AS to what we will do in the matter I
cannot say now. Tomorrow Mr.. Lee
yelling will become a member of the
/ board and soon thereafter Mr.. HurdS
| proposition will be considered. If we
find that the law gives US authority to
act and that it is to the interests of the
people for to act why of course we
will do something
Governor Leedy said on the subject: q
have not seen MI Hurds proposition 1
knew nothing WhateYer ABOUT 1t until this
morning when Mr. billiard told me of Mr.
Hurd's call yesterday evening. Officially
is for the board to say and do"
But of course the commissioners will
ask your advice on the subject?''
oh, L presume they will 1 don't know
whether the board has any power to act.
L thought so three years ago and was
of the railroad commissioners making a
schedule of maximum rates for the gov
eminent of the railroads. The railroads
fought that proposition tooth and toenan-
then. They said the board had no author
ity under the law to promulgate such a
schedule. But the board went ahead and
made the schedule and the railroads de-
parted declaring that they would pay no
attention to 1t and they kept their word
ago, when the Republican board abro-
I'VE are working now under the same
law that was in force when that schedule
was made. If the board had no authority
to act then it has no authority to act
now. Suppose we should make a schedule
of rates in accordance with Mr.. Hurd 3
proposition. what reason have we to be-
lieve that the railroads would live up to
it?
1t is my judgment that the board
should not do anything which the law now
on the statute books would not sanction.
If the railroads want a schedule of rates
that would be stable and permanent let
them cease their opposition to the enact
I ment of a law along that line What the
people want is a schedule that they can
depend upon. One that will be binding
upon the railroads well as upon the
shippers And if the railroad attorneys
themselves are authority, the law we now