The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-22

orders issued that under no circum-
stances or conditions would any devia-
ton from the law be permitted.
Notwithstanding all of these precau-
tons the other arrangement OF billing
the coal and coke at a delivered price
and not separating the freight rate from
the price Of the commodity in the tariff
was not corrected until some time last
November. It was evidently not re-
garded in the tariff printing bureau as
an irregular arrangement, and conse-
quently. escaped attention. It might be
considered that it was misplaced
switch in that bureau and neither the
president Of the road nor Mr.. Biddle,
the freight traffic manager, nor myself
was any more responsible for it than
the president or vice president or gen
eraI manager of any great railroad for
the train service which may result in
bad wreck All of our orders were care
fully considered and carefully issued,
but so far as this particularly is con-
cerned seem to have been overlooked.
AT the time this contract was made
had no interest whatever in the Colo
RADIO Fuel and Iron company.
Opposed to Rebates.
Il sold my stock in that company
ana all its auxiliary companies when
I left its employ before entering the
service Of the Atchison road in 1895,
and have not been a stockhOlder Of 1t
OF OF any of its subsidiary committees
since. My only interest in the Colorado
the business I could for 1t for the Atchi-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad COM
pany. have been a railroad man for
over 80 years and a railroad officer for
most of that time, and have done my
utmost to bring about decent railroad
practices. I have always been opposed
to rebates and all kinds of graft in
the business, and I do not believe there
is another railroad officer in the west
ern country who has tried to be fairer
in his relations to the public or more
fearless in denouncing and trying to
prevent the evils and abuses Of railroad
management. AT the same time have
been just as insistent in demanding
that the railroads should have fair
play.
Great injustice has been done the
management of the Atchison road in
this matter. No railroad in the west
ern country has more clearly recogniz-
ed the rights of the public or more
definitely declared itself at all times in
railway in the west has made more OF
an effort to carefully observe the re-
quirements of the law. Very respect
fully, PAUL NORTON"
The President to Morton.
The correspondence concluded with
the following reply from the president
June II, 1905.
My Dear Mr. Morton:-I have re-
ceived your letter of the 5th inst, in
reference to your own action concerning
the rebates which the interstate COM
merce commission have found to have
been granted by the AtchiSon, Topeka
& Santa Fe railroad to the Colorado
Fuel company at the time you were
vice president of the railroad. Not a
shred of testimony, so far as know,
has been presented from any source,
either by the interstate commerce COM
mission or by the special counsel en-
ployed by the department of justice,
-e,11x in
granting these rebates. In your letter
you show not only that you were ig-
norant of the existence of such rebates,
but that you had taken every possible
step to see that neither in this case
nor in any other were any rebates
granted, and you quote documents
which show that your subordinates
were repeatedly and explicitly warned
to obey the law as regards these re-
bates, as well as in all other respects.
This showing on your part and in
view of the fact that, as 1 have said, not
a shred of testimony has been procured
against you from any source whatever,
I do not think that you need pay any
further heed to the accusations that
have been made against you. I do not
myself need any confederation of any
statement you make; but if did need
it, it would be furnished by the bold
ness and frankness with which over
three years ago and before any of the
proceedings with which we are now
dealing took place, you testified to the
entire truth in connection with the tax
ing of rebates from the roads, and it is
deeply discreditable that this testimony
should not only now be quoted against
you but. with shameless perverSion of
the truth, should be quoted as having
been given by you in this case. At the
time when you gave this testimony, the
interstate commerce law in the matter
of rebates was practically dead letter.
Everybody Dis0beyed Law.
Every railroad man admitted pri-
vately that he paid no heed whatever
to it, and the interstate commerce COM
mission had shown itself absolutely
powerless to secure this heed. When 1
took up the matter and endeavored to
enforce obedience to the law on the
part OF the railroads in the question of
rebates. I encountered violent OppOsi-
ton from the great bulk of the railroad
men and a request by all of those to
whom I 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
giving rebates; that you strongly OBJ
jected to it; but that as long as the law
was a dead letter the railroads which
preferred 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.
Il agreed with you cordially that the
only way in which II would be possible
to secure the enforcement of the law
would be by making it effective against
all roads alike, as if some were allowed
to violate it necessarily meant that the
others in self-protection would be driven
to violate it also, and cannot too
heartily commend the fearless and frank
way in which you (and you alone) came
forward and in the interest of the gov
eminent and the public gave legal evil
dences of the facts which every one in
interest privately admitted to exist but
which interstate commerce commission
had previously been unable legally to
establish. It was primarily due to this
testimony of yours that we were able to
put so nearly effective stop to the
system of rebates as it then existed.
Trusts His Word Absolutely.
"You rendered a great public ser