The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-28
CONFERRED ON INTERSTATE COM
MERGE COMMISSION BY PRO-
POSED LEGISLATION.
THE CHANGES ARE RADICAL
NOT ONLY THE ROADS, BUT CHAR
ACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT
AFFECTED.
A RAILWAY PRESIDENT PROTESTS.
Iieves, Are Behind the Move
ment in Progress.

LOUISVILLE, Nov. 27.-Milton H.
Smith, president Of the Louisville &.
Nashville railroad today gave out an
interview In which he vehemently OPP
poses the pending railroad legislation
before congress. Before leaving the city
he was seen and asked to give to the
public a statement of his position In
regard to the proposed legislation.
LAS to scalping," said Mr.. Smith.
that is largely a moral question, and
an immoral practice, which the law,
as it stands, should suppress, and the
railroads must suppress. AS to the
pooling provisions proposed, they are
not of sufficient Importance to require
much attention from railroad manag-
ers. Pooling will not be obligatory, and
pooling rates have to be approved by
the interstate commerce commission
The whole thing is delusive. 1 should
not like to say the proposition is in
tended to delude the public and the
railroads as to the revolutionary char
acter Of the proposed legislation. used
the word revolutionary advisedly, and
the movement Is one which should
arouse public attention and secure no
public approval, but public condemna-
ton.
Much Instrumentation has been given
as to the effect of recent judicial deci-
sions concerning the interstate COM
merce commission. The public has been
informed officially that these decisions
have 'emasculated the commission
that they have destroyed its useful
ness; that it has been deprived of pow
er conferred upon 1t by congress, to fly
rates, and that the power thus taken
away must be conferred by congress
in language not subject to misinter-
probation.
There is evidently an organized
movement, directed by shrewd and in
terested men, to confuse the whole mat
ter. Every assumption is false. The
commission has been deprived of no
power ever given it by congress; all
the usefulness it ever possessed it pos
sesses today. All the courts have done
has been to check a tendency of or
ganized political agencies to extend
their power in new fields.
THE public should no longer be de-
ceived. The purpose of the proposed
legislation is not to restore to the
commission something it has lost, but
to give it something it has never pos
SSSStu, SOIleIHluS IL COuIu not use sale
ly and something that never should be
given it.
Il wish to state the facts with all the
emphasis of which l am capable. The
proposed changes are radical and revo-
lutionary, affecting not simply the
railroads but the whole character of
government. 1t is not possible for one
commission to fix rates; to settle the
innumera BILE controversies daily arts
mo hptWapn 1i0ac hetWpaT CHI
between cities. Such power should
not exist anywhere today. To give it to
a single commission would be to endoW
it with an influence over the lives, the
prosperity and the futures of the pri-
Vate citizens such as no government
here and few governments abroad have
ever tried to assume in times of peace.
"Yet this feature of the bill is ig-
nored in all public discussions. We
hear much of pooling and scalping.
We hear nothing of this other scheme,
stalking into congress, behind the pool
ing and anti-scalping measures, claim
ing the approval of the public upon pal
pably false pretenses. These false pre-
lenses should AT once be exposed
and the people should not be kept in
ignorance of the effect of such a revo-
lutionary measure upon the whole
character of the government"
The significance of this interview
with Mr.. Milton II. Smith will be I'M
derstood by newspaper men all over the
country, who have tried to interview
the gentleman. On all ordinary mat
tiers Mr.. Smith Is rigidly reticent. This
interview indicates the Importance at
tached by experienced railroad men to
the legislation which interested parties
are so heartily commencing to the at
tention of congress.