The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-31
SPEECH OF NEWCOMB
DEALS WITH PROPOSED REGULA-
 TION OF RATES.
Expert Delivers Address at Meeting of American Association for the Ad- vnncement of Science in
 New Orleans,

New Orleans, Dec. 30.-(Special. )- H. T. Newcomb. we'll known as an au- thority on railway statistics who was one of the two experts employed by the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce to prepart a digest of the testimony in the railway rate hearings last spring, made an address today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in which he discussed some proposed solutions of the railway rate problem.
 Referring to the many proposals for new legislation now before Congress. Mir. Newcomb expressed his opinion of dealing with certain broad principles in connection with them.
 "The measures proposed fall plainly into two classes" he said. There are proposals which contemplate a single act of legislation, leaving the enforce ment of the law to the ordinary exec utive and judicial machinery supple mented, as at present, by the Inter- state Commerce Commission, and pro- posals which contemplate successive acts of legislation, each specially adap- ted to the conditions peculiar to par ticular case.
 The Foraker bill is an example of the rst-mentioned class. Its princi- pie is that Congress should set up the standards of obligation to which the carriers must conform, but that when | they are charged with violating those | standards the carriers should have the same right to defends themselves as any one else charged with an offense against the law. It recognizes the | fact that unjust discrimination and excessive charges in railway service are public offenses. and provides that | the cost of prosecuting alleged viola | tions of the law shall be borne by the government. If this measure should be adopted the commission would make 1 such an examination of each complaint | received as should be necessary to de- eide whether there was reasonable ground for belief that the law was being or had been violated. There would be no formal hearings. no argu- ments by counsel, no elaborate, tedious and time- destroying processes Of any kind. If prima facie case was made out, the commission would complain to | a circuit court of the United States sitting in equity and would ask for relief as the circumstances demanded The order of the court would grant such relief, for that purpose controll- ing. if necessary or desirable, future rates and rate adjustments.
 '"The Esch-Townsend bill and the bill prepased by the Interstate Com merce Commission, on the other hand apply the idea that there must be a special act of legislation to meet every case. The thory of these bills is that the only power adequate tc correct existing abuses in the legis- lative power possessed by Congress They hold that Congress has power tc pass by statute a schedule for all the railroads and covering every service which they render, but they are not willing that Congress should directly lexercise this power. They contend that it ought to be utilized fragment by fragment and fraction by fraction as cases presenting the conditions which appeal to legislative discretion from time to time arise. To this enc an expedient has been devised whicf c involves a startling departure from tht rordinary processes of legislation. II is proposed to segregate a portion o1 the legislative discretion entrusted tc the elected representatives of the peo' ple and to confer them upon deputy legislature whose members are ap' pointed by the President. That is, tho interstate Commerce Commission which is now q part of executive branch of the federal government anC an adjunct of the judicial branch, iS to become a legislative body, but Il Is not to become like the rest of tho Legislative machinery, directly respon' sible to its constituents; 1t is to re main the creature of the Executive
 Mir. Newcomb added three reasons tC explain why many Americans have been led to favor a proposal to devolvt important legislative power upon al apointive body. These are: A false conception of the change proposed; { misunderstanding of the present situa' tion; and, an under estimate of th' powers of federal courts of equity anC of scope of the authority which car be conferred upon them.
 Tt sounds so softly innocuous, de
 clared Mir. NewcOmb, ito contend fol the right to correct a rate upon com
 plaint and after investigation, or tC
 substitute a reasonable rate for on' found unreasonable These are th'
 terms in which the advocates of law
 made rates describe the proposed sub
 stitution of legislative discretion to
 the impartial enforcement of statutes
 of general application and the trans
 fer of that discretion to an appointiv'
 deputy gislature utterly foreign an' | obnoxious to the spirit of the Constt
 tuition. We would imagine from thes
 words that the Commission rarely con siders a case which involves but on
 rate, that many of its decisions nav involved thousands of rates, that l
 can proceed without complaint on t
 own motion as we'll as after complaint
 that anyone can complan of rates with
 out showing the slightest pecuninar,
 interest in them, or that full poWe to correct any violation of law nov
 exists? Let these are the facts.
 } Few laws are of greater importanc
 than those which this proposed deputy
 legislature would have power to en
 act. The power to make and to adjus
 freight rates is the power to bind o
 loose industry, to enrich or to impov
 erish labor and capital, to build up o to tear town communities and com
 merce. Where wheat shall be groun'
 into flour is principally a question O
 the relation between the rates on grail
 and on flour. The trend of export com
 merce is fixed by the relations amoni
 the rates from the primary sources o supply to the several ports. and so ol
 throughout the list.
 What would be the difference be
 tween the results of lawmade ant
 those of market made rates? Here i
 this great port of New Orleans. witt its magnificent facilities for the trans
 shipment of the products of American
 industry and with many splendid ave t,,I nd leading to 1t