The sun., 1903-04-18

ties case, It Ii not easy TO see how one OF
them could escape conviction.
There Ia another reason why there
should be reconsideration OF the statute,
which Is that other railways and their
officers are In peril II. naturally com
peting, they have merged, or CONSOLE
dated their power to fix rates. Perhaps
such railways will be safe II the merger,
or consolidation, or control, was accom-
plished prior to June 20, 1890. Federal
statutes Of limitations protect indivi-
duals against criminal indictments. The
Federal Constitution, forbidding e1 post
facto law, will prevent criminal, or penal,
suits for offences anterior to the date OF
any enactment. But 1t is not 90 certain
that the Constitution will protect compet-
tive railway mergers against civil pro-
ceedings to declare the mergers illegal,
notwithstanding what the Constitution
declares regarding the impairing OF ante
cedent contracts. Retrospective laws,
which look backward. and retroactive
laws, which act backward, have not been
favored, but everything will depend on
what executive officers and the Judges
shall say.
1t matters nothing that what has pro-
duced such recent convulsion in the in
dustrial and investment world is judge
made law. That law when declared by
the Supreme Court OF the United States
Is us much law as IL enacted by Congress
and approved by the President, 30 long
a. IL is not modified either by Congress
or by the court.
What II needed now Is careful recon-
sideration Of the whole subject by voters
and Congress, and especially In order
that there shall exist uniform railway
conditions throughout the whole ooun-
try. 1t is absurd, as well as unjust, that
In the Northeastern portion Of the United
States the rule Of community OF inter-
ests shall prevail in railways, as in
New England, but in the Northwestern
part there shall be an opposite rule,
which is the rule Of cutthroat compe-
tition by railway traffic agents, under
the Northern Securities decree. 1t Is
absurd and unjust that the defendants
In the Northern Securities case shall be
denounced, punished and injured for
doing nothing moro than others have
been by the Government permitted TO
do, and have done in other parts OF the
country, with railways naturally COM
peting. II competitive values for rail-
way service in the Northwestern portion
OF the United States is to be the rule,
it should be in New England, In New
ork and in all other parts OF the coun-
try. II preventing play Of COMPETE
ton 10 criminal in the Northwest it
should be everywhere. Even If, which
is not probable, the defendants in the
Northern Securities case intended to
violate the law Of 1890, and their property
Is thereby, by q decree Of the Federal
equity court, placed in a condition from
which it cannot be extricated excepting
by Federal statute, 1t is certainly hard
ship that the property Of . multitude
OF innocent persons shall. without any
illegal act or intention Of theirs, be sud-
denly put In tho Same category and all
income therefrom kept back and TO
strained.
II it shall turn out after exam
ination that during half dozen
years from the enactment Of tho Anti
Trust law Of 1890 nobody believed. or
suspected, that such decree upon the
facts offered In evidence could be en-
tered q has been entered in the North
ern Securities case. then IL does seem
requisite and decent that the Govern
nent at Warrington shall at the earliest
opportunity give relief.