The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-14
MORGAN TAKES ISSUE
HIS VIEWS AS OPPOSED TO THOSE
 OF HOOsEvERT.
Senator Doubts Wisdom of Conferring Rate, Making Powers Upon
 the Interstate Commerce s~t ,. Communication. -..

Birmingham, Ala, Oct 13-Senator John T. Morgan of Alabama was in Birmingham today and made a state- ment In which he takes issue with President Roosevelt's proposed policy of conferring greater powers for the regulation of railway rates upon the Interstate Commerce Commission. Said Senator Morgan:
 'The proposition proposed by the President contemplates, in the judg- ment of sober minded men, nothing less than a radical change both in the principle of national and in the prin- ciple of the foreign and distant power delegated by the constitution and the statute law to the Federal Government on the one hand and on the other hand to the States.
 Tn my judgment, based as 1t Is upon a careful examination of the situation, 1t is not likely that the effort to em- power the Interstate Commerce Com mission with authority to fix railway rates will, In the near future at least. result in any definite conclusion. The subject is so large, the interests in- volved are so conflicting, and the wishes of the people of various sec tions of the country are so diverse, 1t is well nigh impossible to reach im- mediately a satisfactory conclusion in the matter. I hardly think that any thing definite will be done by Con- gress for 1t.
 ITO illustrate: Railways in Ala bama do business in the State under charter issued by the State Legisla- ture. Suppose now the Interstate Com merce Commission should fix rate In this State that would work against the interests of the great mass Of the people. The people would then have the right to say that they were op- pressed by the railways. and rather than endure the oppression they would the railway out of business In the State, and not only put 1t out of busi- ness but also derange the whole rate system that had been fixed by the 1n- terstate Commerce Commission.
 we cannot afford to adopt in this country the experiment of changing over night our political system. That experiment has been tried many times in history, and not once with success. Our country is prosperous. our people are happy. The nation has been made what 1t Is by the genius of its people, by its free institutes. by the wise dis tribution of governmental powers be- tween the Federal and the State au- thorities. The question: Has Con- gress the power to fix a railway rate? is absolutely new in American politics. IL ndS not yet pe6n oetcTIHiHcu-
 The whole problem of fixing railway rates is essentially a business and a judicial question, ard should be solved in a judicial and businesslike manner. The difficulty is that the moment the question Is discussed 1t runs into poli- tics at every point on the circumference. It should not be made political issue, ir the usual acceptation of the word, for If it be so made it will result in wrecking the industrial and commercial life of the country There is so much at stake in this nation that patriotic citizens will see to it that they are not swept from their moorlngs by ill-advised agitation on the part of persons who have neither the intelligence nor the ca pacity to solve rightly a great consti- tutional probl am, involving as it does not oaly the industrial and commer- cial prosperity of the country, but alsa fome of the Fundamental principles oi free, orderly, constitutional govern mept.'