The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-07-20
JUDGE CLARK TO
R. R. COMMISSION.
RAILROADS HAVE TAKEN s1a,ooo.-
600 TOO MUCH IN SIX YEARS.

ObSS
600 TOO MUCH IN SIX YEARS.
Making IS Per Cent. Net--over So, ooo,-
600 illegally Carried Out of the State
Yearly--The Fares Should be 2 Cents
The Freight Rates, Charged in North
Carolina Are Also Too High and Rail.
road Taxes Are Much Too Low.
To the Honorable The Gentlemen of the
RGELrOGd Commission:
In compliance with your request, I
respectfully submit some of the reasons
which occur to me why you should &C
cede to the public demand, already
granted in some States, for a substan-
tial reduction of passenger and freight
rates. l wish that your invitation had
been extended to some one far ADLER
than l to express the justice of that de-
mand and with power to persuade you
to grant it. At no time in the last six
years nave numerous, able and skillful
counsel been lacking to represent to
you the opposition to any concession
to the public wishes. I wish therefore
that the peoples side of the question
could now be presented by some more
potent hand than mine.
The right of the public either through
a legislative act or by means of a com
mission, to
REGULATE N FIX THE RATES
OF all common carriers, and especially
OF railroads, has always been recog
nized as law. Repeated decisions Of
the United States Supreme Court have
OF late years re affirmed this law and
so conclusively and clearly as to be be.
yond chance of recall.
The somersault of a judge of that
court, which reversed the ~precedents
OF 100 years in order that an income
tax Of $50, OOO, 900 might be transferred
from the rich syndicates, corporations
and milliOnaires to the backs of the
toiling producers sent a thrill of indig
nation through the country whose last
vibration has not yet been felt. But a
decision which should attempt to
change b lmmemorial law and put in
the hands of the railroad corporations
the unrestricted power to fix the tolls
we should pay on the internal Gem
merce of the country would place the
value OF every mans land, of every
mans cotton, CT other produce, at the
mercy OF these corporations.
To turn over the fixing the tariff upon
u foreign commerce, absolutely and
without disguise, 60 the syndicates and
trusts who grow rich upon it is not a
circumstance to the effect on the public
welfare and the public mind which
would follow the turning over this
tariff on our internal commerce (Which
is many hundred times greater than
that which comes from foreign cou
tries through our custom houses) to be
fixed, at their will, by those who are
to receive the profits OF their W &C.
ton. If the millers were to combine to
fix the tolls Of their mills without reg.
ulation by the public, it would place
the bread of the people at their mercy.
But that combination is absolutely
nothing to the power (f they possessed
it) Of corporations to levy at wilLtheir
own rate of toll upon every pound of
freight and every passenger that is
moved by steam in this land.
The very act OF assembly to which
you owe your existence expressly con-
fers0 upon you the power to fix rates
for passengers and freights and for tele-
graph and telephone messages. Unless
your Commission is a nullity you have
the power and you were
CREATED TO EXERCISE 1T.
The public demand for a reduction of
railroad charges musthave been strong
indeed which in spite of the well-known
influence Of those corporations and
their long experience in defeating legis
lation could force through the act
which created your commission. It
was not established to compliment
| three gentlemen with Office, nor to add
to our taxation an expense of some
$4,000, annually but the Commission
was created because the public vas
Overwhelmingly convinced far back
certainly prior to 1691-that the rail
road charges were excessive and op-
fpressive and that relief could not be
had from the voluntary reduction of
them by those receiving railroad in.
comes, but must be ordered by the PEG,
pie, in right of their sovereign power
to fix the rates Of common carriers.
The only restriction upon your power
to fix rates yer suggested by any
court, is that the rates should not be