The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-08
HOCH DOESN'T AGREE.
Thinks That Supreme Court Is Wrong
About Oil Refinery.

Governor E. w. Hoch yesterday after
noon dictated and signed a statement
concerning the state Oil refinery deciS-
ion, supplemental to the short state
ment which he made to the State Jour-
nal Friday afternoon.
In this new statement, Governor Hoch
takes occasion to criticise the attitude
of the supreme court in assuming that
the state oil refinery is an internal inn
proVement. He says that i'll his opinion
internal Improvements include the con-
struction of public roads. canals and
railroads, and not business enterprises
such as characterize the present COM
mercial era.
statement:
Il cannot say that the decision is a
surprise to me, because I had to some
extent anticipated it. That it is a con-
and excellent gentlemen who constitute
our highest judicial tribunal no one will
question.
There have always been two ways of
constituting constitutions. One is repre-
scented by those who are known as
strict constituencies, that is those who
confine themselves very closely, if not
absolutely, to the letter of the law. The
other way by those who breath into the
letter a soul, a living spirit. The latter
class, and if I were a lawyer or judge,
I would belong to this class, believe
that the law, to use homely figure, is
like a man In this that it has form and
clothing, but that it also has soul.
That the soul of all law is the good of
humanity and society. That is the pur-
pose of all law, organic and statutory.
And let me say that in nearly every
really great emergency in human his
tory when the vital interests of terri
tory and humanity were at stake, the
courts have looked deep into the soul
of the law and have literally construed
its letter to further vitalize its life, be-
lieving, to use scriptural phrase, that
there are times when the letter killeth
but the spirit keepeth alive.
There have been emergencies In this
country, many of them, when a liberal
construction of the constitution has
been the salvation of the country, and
when the cold, clamnly, technical con-
struction would have wrought an ire
trainers of the constitution, however
WISE can anticipate these emergencies.
I believe this contest in which we are
engaged in this state is such an emer-
gency. Think of it! The Kansas oil
fields are easily capable of a daily out
put of $4,000 barrels. A year ago this
oil commanded a price from its chief
purchaser, the Standard Oil company,
more than three times its present prices.
Does anyone believe the Standard Oil
company was losing money in that deal?
Does anyone believe that our oil is
really and legitimately less valuable
now than then as a commercial pro-
duct? Figure a little. Suppose we are
robbed only so cents per barrel of legiti-
mate price on $4,000 barrels per day, and
this is a low estimate. Simple mathe-
mates will show that nearly 10 mil
lions per year is the tribute this com
mercial cormOrant exacts from our peo-
pie.
Truly has John D. Rockefeller put
into practice in Kansas the Infamous
injunctions to his subordinate managers
which Miss Tarbell attributes him in
her contribution to this great question.
Pay no man a profit
1T would be presumptuous, of course,
now that the case has been settled, for
me to presume to offer an opinion as
to the chief point in controversy, but i
will venture to do it anyhow. The de-
| cision seem to be based on the assump-
| ton that the oil refinery will be an in
ternal improvement, and therefore con-
| trary to the constitutional inhibition
The meaning of the language in any
| document, I think, should be ascertain
| ed not by the present meaning of these
| terms, but by their meaning at the time
| the document was written.
when our constitution was framed
| and that language was used oil has just
/ been discovered. Hence, there was nc
contemplation of an oil refinery at least
| nv the trainers of our constitution
Neither were any of the great industrial
| enterprises that now characterize the
| business world in such existence as they
/ are today. Internal improvements ther
| meant, think, the construction of pub
lie thoroughfares, canals, railroads and
the like, and did not then mean bust.
/ ness enterprises such as we have in this
commercial era.
''But this is only my opinion on the
| technical side of the question. 1 wish
the lawyers had seen otherwise and
! that we might have gone on with this
refinery project, because I believe il
would have furnished a substantial
contribution to the final solution of the
whole trust problem. Not that the
comparatively Insignificant sum which
Kansas would have expended in this
enterprise would have been a serious
menace to the gigantic Standard oil