The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-23
As 10 NE MORTON.

yet It is positive that rebates were g1veT
by officials Immediately under him. He
appears to be perfectly frank and hon
I est in his statements. yet he is accused
of playing to the galleries.
The president apparently has the ut
most confidence thus far that Mr. Nor
ton was not connected with the grant
J ing of the rebate to the Colorado Fuel
and Iron company by the Santa F'e rail-
road. and the presidents opilHon will
go far towards establishing Mr. Nor
TOMS innocence in the minds Of the
American people.
At the same time Mr.. Morton's letter
TO the president regarding the Colorado
Fuel case is not particularly strong. He
saws that the Santa Fe was in danger
| of losing a traffic worth million dol
! lars q year and that the arrangement
with the. Colorado Fuel company was q
protective measure The mistake, he
argues, was in not properly publishing
[ the Colorado Fuel rate in the tariffs
fled with the interstate commerce com
/ mission. and this was something that
he knew nothing about. Mr.. Mortons
! denial of knowledge of the affair IS as
/ follows:
"JJntiI the investigation Of the case by
I the interstate commerce commission,
! did not know personally how the mat
! ter was being handled, as far as the
publication of the tariff was concerned
Ny own connection with the case was
! to see that the traffic was secured to
the Atchison rails and after that de-
tails were left to subordinates. Thou
sands of tariffs are published every
year"
Mr.. Morton apparently does not deny
that he knew of the contract with the
Colorado Fuel company, but that he did
not know it was not properly publish
ed. At the same time it is positive that
the arrangement was intended to be Sc
cret, as the circular promulgating it
was marked "for the information Of
employees only
It could scarcely be denied that Mr..
Morton whose business it was Ito see
that traffic was secured to the Atchison
rails" was ignorant of the arrangement
by which a traffic worth a million dol
lars a year was saved to the road. And
bv keeping the arrangement secret the
competitors of the Colorado Fuel COM
pany were prevented from demanding
similar rates.
At the same time Mr.. Morton has al
ways llLlGQ QP against liz EAeANNAcC -
giving rebates. He himself calls atten-
ton to the fact that it was his testi-
mony that enabled the government to
enjoin the railroads in certain cases.
President Roosevelt certif1es heartily
that Mr. Morton alone of all the men
whose aid he sought in enforcing the
law against rebates, was willing to give
testimony in aid of law enforcement.
The r7reSidenf saws.
Every railroad man admitted pri-
vately that he paid no heed whatever
to it and the interstate commerce
commission had shown itself absolute
" Dowerless to secure this heed. When
I took up the matter and endeavored
to enforce obedience to the law on the
part of the railroads in the question of
rebates encountered violent opposi-
ton from the great bulk of the railroad
men and refusal by all of those to
whom spoke to testify in public to the
very state of affairs which they freely
admitted to me in private. You alone
stated that you would do all in your
power to break up this system of Civ
ing rebates; that you strongly objected
to it, but that as long as the law was
a dead letter the railroads which pre-
ferred to obey it were forced to dis
obey it if they were to continue in bust
ness at all under the competition of
their less scrupulous fellows
Mr.. Morton's action in connection
with Kansas cattle rate cases also inn
pressed most of those concerned with
his fairness. Following the floods two
years ago the railroads proposed to
adopt a new basis for rates on cattle
shipments which would have resulted in
an increase of rates. The cattlemen
protested before the state board of rail-
road commissioners. There was a big
hearing which Mr.. Morton attended. He
asked questions which brought out the
fact that the service following the floods
was demoralized and that the cattle
men lost much money sometimes be-
cause of delays in shipments. When
this fact was established Mr.. Morton
called the railroad attorneys into con-
sultation and Immediately announced
that the rates would not be advanced.
The cattlemen were loud in their praise
of Mr.. Morton.
But there is another side of the case.
A railroad official of the strictest in
tegrity some time ago made the state
ment privately that Mr.. Morton is re-
garded among railroad officials as some
thing Of a ''grandstand player "That
is what happened in that cattle rate
case" he said. when it was first pro-
/ posed to make the new classification I,
among others, protested. Later we
were summoned to Chicago, for con
/ ference on the subject, I am informed.
/ But on reaching there we found that
| Mr.. Morton had already arranged for
the new basis and there was nothing
for us to do but to try to enforce it.
/ Then when the protest came and the
/ evidence was produced which we knew
beforehand, Mr.. Morton got from under,
making it appear that the abrogation
of the order was entirely due to him
He got the praise and the other roads
got the blame from the people"
Mr. Morton's frankness is what has
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