The Indianapolis journal., 1897-04-17


Your Honor will notice that the taking of
a larger fare was declared 10 be extortion
and was made an offense, and that that
offense was punishable by flne against the
corporation. How does that ulHer from
further perpetually restraineu from serving
any copies OF state orders to the said Cul-
berson. or any other party; or nf.iin.g tu,mlsning
of any character for the purpose or en-
abling him or any other party TO prosecute
suits. etc. The Supreme Court has decided
the question as to the right of a court 10
compel a defendant to produce MS books
and furnish evidence against himself in an
action of criminal nature. Ihe attorney
general has called attention TO some cases
where the courts have declined 10 restrain
criminal prosecutions, NOT upon sucn
grounds as these, not upon any question
as to a State being party but upon the
broader. equitable consideration as to
whether a case was made for injunction; /;
and the courts have held in those cases
that in a prosecution against a man Tor a
crime or misdemeanor, the court would not
Intervene. He had full remedy az Jaw;
he could raise the question of jurisdiction
But those cases Bot at all like the
Texas case, or like this case, where We
have a multiplicity of suits. Here are
shses which do invoke the intervention OF
atourt of equity, and do aftord Sood
basis on which TO rest jurisdiction. here
is a case where the constitutionallty OF a
law is contested and where an accumulat.
ing number of suits for the enforcement or
penalties involve the integrity of the prop
Dc not need to spend any time upon the
object N that the bill is not supported
tutional questions. What proofs are
we to present? The gentlemen nave
read from fare cases, where the ques55loH 5 ~ oa
reasonableness of the fare was mace the
basis of the bill. This is not such a case.
We present here constitutional questions
that can neither be supported py aIhuaNt''
nor overcome by affidavit. nor by uecldlia-
ton. We show by an averment that this
railroad company separated from It's a IIa.o u
chise and toll rights is wholly lhauequat:e
as to security. and that the ERECT Oh this
law is TO impair that security. Is not TINS
a familiar ground of Intervention! Certalh-
ly it is to judges OF the Cnlteu I,1'ts t6reafo
ening the integrity or the coIPol,a.lo.i'
threatening the seizure of its cars, threat
ening the arrest or ITS enp.4yeS, neptv o,,e t6
an end are brought, does anybody cohtehu
that is not case for equltaple lnteiNeh-
ton; and that when a mortgaee tIuseet sc
makes TO a court a showing like that tnat
he Is TO be told to let these thousand cases
go on. to let these penalties be sougnt, 10
let the prosecutor institute In every JuStlce
of the peace court in the county as MANY
prosecutions as he can find facts 10 .s Dass
them upon; let these Judgments De ehteiIa ea,d
and let the property be seized anu Solu
Is this sore of wrecking TO go on Is
court of equity to tell the sultor, VINO nd nd
a right to appeal to 1t, tnat ne Hius' s'a"u
by while that Is done!
INTENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.
II Is a most valuable help in constitution
al or statutory construction if we can hnd
that q particular constitutional provision
was adopted TO meet recognized and we'll
defined evil. In other words. if we can find
what IL was aimed at, we shall have great
helm in constituting its provisions; because
il is a canon of construction that the IN
tent is to take effect if it can be ascer-
tanned. / have no occasion. 1 think, 10 can
the courts attention again to the pro-
visions of orr State Constitution which are
involved here. One of them is reservation resIn
i'm the bill of rights. reservation lhieuueu nue.
to prevent favoritsm and class ieglsiauon'
n declaration by the people of this State,
that they would not permit their Leslsiaa5,
ture to pass class laws tnat they WIZ. woutn
require i'm legislation. justice ana equarty
among ali the citizens of the state Inc
great principle of the equality OF tne cl.lLeh Ie
was one of the Inspirations OF the revoiu- ,in.
ton and is one of the granite corneiS'oh''
of every free government. y C.. hoe
In Section % Article \, the state has
made list of seventeen % sup1h SURE shall not
mass any special laws Ii foHoWs thdl WIN WIZ
a section providing that In al other Uasro 80,
the laws shall be genera ana SOL OF wbere
thev can be made so. That Is an appeal W
the legislative Judgment, ana IL mas DELI
so construed generally by the courts,
though some courts have insisted that the
courts had the power of seeing Wnether tie
question might be dealt with py genera
lation constitutional upon subjects that
may be dealt with by general ieglsia.itThn, tI thl
That the courts cannot do. but II puts 'iIs
question upon the conscience ana noiior Vi
the member of the Legislature. mem
her of the Legislature who votes Tor spe-
cIal bill regulating a subject that ne pe
lieves might be dealt WIN py sune,J sa,,,her Of
islation. violates his oath as a memDer 9t
the Legislature. But the court mas saiu ~
cannot take away from the Leglslaiure .,ie
consideration of this question, ana IL Ile
legislature has declared that a particular
subject cannot he dealt with by genera
egislation-and ii does so wnen IL ued,s
with il by special legislation-it must aDide
nv the decision of the Legislature. hhu,
by looking at the constitutional DEBATES
that as Section p was first reported 10 'iie
convention there was contained III IL d
nroyision as to creating private corpora
ticns Why was it not left there! Simply
because the convention hnally uetetiiiilie .s
to give the Legislature power to create one
corporation only by special law, and that
Was the Bank of the State of Indiana.
In the address that went out WIN M lnls
Constitution to the electors: special stress
was laid upon the fact tnat Where zen,
eral law can be made applicable no speclai
law can be passed. L nave read
these extracts from the proceedings i'm the
convention to show that in the opinion OF
the convention, as expressed there. one OF
the prime purposes pernaps tne a l,Sr horrp pI H.
self i'm upon the people of Indiana as
reason for founding new Constitution was
the evil of special egsiarioh; shnIid tn,nk he he
given to these provisions, we must construe
them in the light of the fact that the peo-
ME of indiana called a constitutional con-
yention to destroy The power of special leg
islation to root out what had come TO be
regarded as an evil and a mischief OF the
first magnitude opening the way TO favor
itism and corruption in legislation.
At this point the court took a recess for
the noon hour, reconvening at o'clock,
when General Harrison resumed his ar
gument.