The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-01
CONGRESS AND RAILROADS.

transportation Of commodities and Of
persons is the chief industry in the ma
ton, employing the most men, demand
! ing the largest current expenditure and
! involving the greatest amount Of cap
| ital. The railroad interests Of the coun-
try have suffered greatly during the
last five years. No such wholesale
| bankruptcies have occurred in any
other industry. In no other kind Of
| business enterprise has so much capital
| been swallowed up and disappeared. In
no other vocation are the returns so
trivial Spite of this. while all other
! legitimate vocations are recognized as
entitled to proper legislative protection,
| the legislative attitude towards rail-
roads has assumed the attitude of re-
pression and restraint The result, as
has been tersely stated, is that in many
| loalities and with reference to many
commodities, a man who obeys the
statute law can neither operate a rail-
road nor ship over a railroad" This is
the pass to which this industry has
been brought by inconsiderate legisla-
ton.
1t seems that the railroads are now to
expect a new attack. Clamor has been
raised that the supreme court, by con-
struction, has emasculated the statute,
and that congress must forthwith con-
fer all the powers which the court has
said are not at present given. To
speak more concretely, the Interstate
| Commerce Commission, in its annual
report, submitted to congress for adop-
ton and approval, demands that the
power to make rates be now conferred
upon the commission.
In a recently issued pamphlet, Col.
Aldace F. Walker, Of the Atchison, To-
peka and Santa Fe railway, calls atten-
ton to the fact that if congress can
confer such a power upon a commission
it can exercise it directly by act. To
see where this would lead US one or two
concrete cases out of thousands may
be suggested. Suppose member from
Georgia should introduce a bill to re-
duce the rate on marble to % cents per
hundred pounds from points in Georgia
to Chicago, and suppose. also, that the
rate on marble from Vermont to Chi
cago is so cents per hundred pounds.
The proposed reduction would shut out
Vermont marble from a large part of
its present territory. New England
would naturally rally to the defense Of
Vermont, and the rate on marble
would become a political issue, with To-
cality arrayed against locality, with
bargains to be made, with personal in
terests to be promoted. Or, suppose,
again, that the rate on lumber from
Wisconsin and Michigan points to Kan
sas and Nebraska should become a
| matter of congressional legislation, as
! compared with lumber rates from Ar
kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Ore
gOn to the same territory. Or suppose
a bill should be introduced to prevent
railroads from transporting oranges
from California to New York at less
than $3.50 per hundred pounds, on the
ground that such transportation has
tendency to injure the orange growers
of Florida; or to reduce rates from both
states in order to exclude fruits from
other countries. Such examples need
not be multiplied. There is no citizen
who would not deprecate the introduce
ton Of such questions into the halls of
congress. Nevertheless, such legislat-
i've experiments are in sight if we once
concede the propriety of congressional
legislation upon railroad rates.
There is no inquiry necessary to tell that
the hole in the average jingo's face bulges
out.
You can prepare yourself for excitement.
planets.
The Eagle has been our national en-
blem since 17S2. And he can hold his place.
He is a bird.
It is going to be mighty hard to talk
indemnity to this country if Spain blew
up that ship. We want wah!
Nine out of ten of the correspondents
at Washington say there will be war.
These correspondents rarely make mis-
takes.
A dispatch from Key West says that
the hole in the Maine bulged in. This NAV
be true, but no one can believe Key West
on anything
War seems more terrible when you i'm
agine a Kansas miltiaman trying to get
by a Spanish sentry with nothing but
cigar-boX Spanish.
The whole subject rests with the Board
OF Inquiry. While the constitution says
congress shall declare war in this case
the power rests with that Board.
King George has been shot at-not by
Turk. If George had permitted the Turks
to take a few shots at him during that
war it might have had different result.
United States has never gone into a
war without a just cause and the United
States has never lost war. No one has
read AicKinley's mind. but this is what
he IS thinking.
Editor Singerly Of Philadelphia has just
died it is said from too much smoking.
The chances are that il was not smoking
but Worry over his financial troubles
which killed him.