The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-03-01

owes as the lessee of property which is
worthless UNLESS THE RAILROAD
MAKES 1T VALUABLE. He went
upon the Commission talking big about
cutting down railroad rates. The rail-
roads naturally did not want that done.
They considered the best way to change
his position and gave him the eating
house According TO the committees
if Colonel Andrews had given him a
single share in railroad company but
is not disqualified because Colonel An
drews abandons a railroad eating-honsc
at another place in order to give s.
Otho's eating-house the monopoly Of
feeding the passengers Is that techni-
cal reasoning sound? Would it lie re-
garded by any fair-minded jury? The
truth is that by the strict letter Of the
law-''or in case any one OF them shall
become disqualified to act'-the conclu-
sion is irresistible that the lease of the
Round Knob hotel under all the attend
ant circumstances disqualified S. Ohio
Wilson just as much as if he had ac-
cepted stock in the railroad. But, we
are told that, if this be true. still s.
Ohio Wilson was not technically dis
qualified because his mother was the
lessee of the hotel The evidence print
ed yesterday establishes the fact that
S. Otho Wilson in every possible way,
including an admitted letter, held nim-
eating house. There is not a man who
took dinner there or who travelled on
the road who did not understand who
was running the hotel and the "where.
fore" of the change of the railroad
eating house.
There is not member of this Legisla-
ture who does not know (see Maj. Will
sons testimony, page I'D that 5. Ohio
Wilson did not lease the hotel until the
of the road had offered to
make it the railway clearinghouse. When
he accepted that lease, with this guar
antee from the railroad through Major
Wilson. he then and there became
disqualified to act. But, still sticking
to technicalities, because no proof is
made of direct agreement between
Otho and the railroad, the committee
SAYS he ought to be reinstated. TIL ere
is proof that the railroad superintendent
told Major Wilson that it would be
made an eating house and Maj. Wilson
conveyed that Information to Otho, who
thereupon leased the hotel. If there
is no technical agreement, the circum-
stances are such as to imply almost IT.
resistibIy that there was an under
standing equivalent to an agreement.
The nature Of the statute creating
Tho Tai Dad Com mission is such as
to show that it was never intended to
be construed with technical severity.
It's clear purpose was to provide that
in determining the fitness of Commits
sioner there should be- authority to eX
anime specific acts in the light of circum-
stances surrounding them. To say that
the term ANY interest in any way does
not cover an eating house whose profits
are derived from the good will of
railroad company is to substitute the
banalities of a dOctrinaire for the plain
reasons of the Judge.
The whole reason of the clause of the
statute prescribing qualifications was to
keep the commissioners free from bias.
To say that hundred dollars worth
of stock would bias the judgment of Il
Commissioner in the contemplation Of
the law. but $1,000 of railroad eating
house profits would not, is palpable
ahsurdity.
The committee are sticklers for the
"anise and the cummin" while they
wholly ignore the weighter matters OF
the law
The Legislature viii dY well to give
more heed to the broad construction that
seeks justice rather than limit the n
quiry to the dry technicalities which fail
to di cover the whole truth