The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-03-27


court after elaborate argument in whicr
il was held that congress had not given
the interstate commerce commission leg
| fslative power 10 fix rates. either maxi
mum. minimum nor absolute
So the Culom bill, the Elkins bill and
| all other acts OF congress to regula te
| commerce were found by the supreme
court to be utterly worthless. The people
were suffering from railroad extortion
and bad service and cried aloud 10 the
/ interstate commerce commission and &c
their representatives, in congress. The
| commission answered: We Will enforce
/ the law as soon as enacted with power to
! enforce Our representatives answered
/ evasively or with temporizing excuses
which, translated into an honest man 5
/ language, meant that they were trying
| their best to get the railroads TO consent
| to their passing remedial legislation: In
the meantime freight rates advanced and
| the service grew rapidly worse. For The
| past three years, and mere particularly
for the past two years, it has been i'm
possible 10 get cars in time to enable
shippers to meet their obligations, and
when cars were finally loaded no calcu-
lation could be made when shipments
would reach the markets BY slow runs,
and prolonged delays along The road,
live stock nearly persisted for feed and
water. While shippers were thus suffer
| ing, the railroads got out an ingenious
contract which they compelled the ship
pers TO sign, which relieved the railroads
from all obligations as common carriers.
This contract is on one side of the ship
ping bill, in agate type and can only
be read with good eyes in a strong light.
1t is substantially the same on all west
ern roads, and shows a concert of action
the same as in making rates. The con-
tract on some of the roads is divided into
sixteen. and on others eighteen and
twenty sections. all in agate type. and in
every section, in one form or another.
we find the words 1--WE hereby release
and hold harmless" in fact the contrac;
is a confession of guilt ending with d
verdict of acquittal, signed in advance
by the victim. And this is The great
transportation system of common car
riers. in which the people have vested
rights
Since writing the above, a prominent
cattle man of Clark county informs me
that he has a load OF cotton seed meal
shipped from Pardanell. Arkansas. the
last day of December which he expected
to feed his cattle in January. now sew
enty-nine days on the road To give the
name of the road thus in default would
make the impression that this Is a soil
lary case on one particular road. which
is not true. All the roads are in like de-
fault, and all have the same contracts
to protect themselves from liability of
damage This is the third winter that
cattle have starved to death by hundreds
in one herd. and many thousands in sin .
gle counties al over western Kansas,
with cotton seed meal on the road. The
haul from the cotton seed mills of Ar
kansas and Texas have been from four
to six hundred miles. with from thirty
TO ninety days bn the road, or, an aver
age haul of, say, five hundred miles, in
an average time of sixty days. or eight
and one-third miles day Of twenty-four
hours 4 neighbor of the writer in Clark
county had last winter a thousand cat
tie. nearly half of which he lost by pow
erty caused by delay in getting feed
which he had on the road The usual
way is for the buyer TO pay for the goods
when he receives them, but the oil mills,
aware of the long delays, have required
payment for the feed when it is loaded
at the mill, thus man may buy and pay
for his feed at the beginning of winter
and receive il after the winter is over,
and for this default by the carrier he
has no remedy at common law. The
contract heretofore described injects a
consideration in these words: This road
has two rates and the shipper having
chosen the lower, hereby releases the
railroad from any obligation to transport
his property to any given market or
point in any given time" This consid-
Grafton is lie as the shipper never heard
of two rates. and that he had chosen
the lower until the railroad attorney
in defending the company against the
suit for damages holds il up to the court
and jury marked Exhibit A. and the
court instructs the jury to find a verdict
for the defendant
We have given but few instances and
no names. but we will furnish at any
time required names of railroads. names
of the sufferers. dates and circumstances.
The commercial interests of the state.
including sixty commercial clubs. repre-
senting all of the industries of Kansas.
met in Wichita during the session of the
state convention Of the Republican party
held on the Sth instant. and placed their
before that body. and asked
them to declare their attitude as a party
on the transportation question. This I
federation Of clubs passed a series Of res /
olutions on the subject and placed Them [
in the hands OF the chairman of the com /
mittee on resolutions of the convention I
urging them to make these resolutions a |
part Of the platform, of the convention |
The resolutions offered the convention l
were as follows:
Resolved. That we hereby declare 1
that the regulation of commerce is a /
function Of government. and that
Whereas. the states Of Iowa. Missouri. I
Arkansas and Texas. surrounding our I
state. have enacted laws fixing transpor- .
tation rates. while Kansas IS left 70 The .
discretion OF the railroads 10 collect such I.
axtortionate rates as to supply the def /
cit created b. legislative restrictions Of 4
surrounding states. We therefore demand
the enactment Of such laws in this he
half az shah give to our state railroad /
commission absolute power 70 tx maxi +
mum rates upon all transportation 4
within the limits Of OUR staIe.
And We further demand that our rep
resentatives in congress and our senators
shall urge such national legislation as 4
shall give our. interstate commsTcc COM 7
mission absolute power according % tn 4
intent Of the constitution 20 fx transpor-
-atson rates for all common carriers
There Is nothing new or strange about /
- r--4..,-4~,rs Tre svSf a-S ms.