The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-13

worked out, ana always VIII NOAA Jul
h true solution of the problem.
Our nation is doubtless fortunate IN
having so large a number OF statesmen
who 10Y exactly VIVA should pc cone
and are willing to undertake the task
/ of doing 1.-THE men who decide WIN
ont thought. and must so decide If they
decide at all. But, gentlemen, II Is not
by denunciation, nor by the defamation
o. amateur statesmen that great ques-
lions of governmental policy are to pc
determined.
Stripped of its non-essentials. what
/ is the question presented tonight. Is II
rebates, or DETERMINATIONS NO. Con-
! fessedIy they are things Of the past,
and besides the recent bill, n the 8
tation of the ate question, involve oniy
! the question of making rates. But II is
easy to talk of rebates, when NOBODY Is
asking for legislation against rebates;
it is easy to talk of an obsolete ana
/ abandoned evil as if it still stalked
abroad. It is dead, and now that It mas
gone to its long home I take the liberty
of saying What every member OF the m
/ terstate commerce commission knoWs'
the railways were never wholly reSpOn-
sible for it. They were not paying out
money because they wanted to- The
chairman of the interstate commerce
commission in 1903 stated to a commit
tee of the senate thai rebates had prac-
tically ceased to exist. and it is within
the common knowledge of shippers and
of the railways that rebates are no
longer paid. Bear in mind, giving pref
erence to one shipper over another is
not Illegal at common law. Competition
is the one thing favored, and competl-
ton never gave equal advantages to
all. It's very foundation is in prefer
ences. The anomaly of the present stu
alton is that the law requires competi-
ton and prohibits the steps necessary
to procure it. If railways compete they
are seized by the interstate
laW-if they do not compete they fan
into the hands Of the antitrust law.
The reductiO ad absurdum is; that
therefore the interstate commerce COM
mission should make rates
THE power to determine the reason
ableness of an existing rate is purely
judicial. The power to fix a rate for
the future is purely legislative. The
power to prosecute, and send out secret
service agents is purely executive. Thus
We have in the interstate
commission, n in the commission
consolidation of the three great organic
powers established by the constitution:
legislative, judicial and executive.
Il do not now discuss the question
whether all these powers can be con-
st~itutionaIly vested in one tribunal; the
important question is. whether they
ought to be. Should the prosecutor be
also the judge n eXecutiOner, in a
civilized governments That is precise
ly the power the interstate commerce
commission assumes, and seeks to AVE
strengthened and enlarged. 1t prose-
cutes cases; it decides cases; it appeals
cases and appears from term to term
as a 1t1gant IN the courts of the United
States. 1t is an Illogical system; not
adapted to the securing of justice but
skillfully contrived to prevent it. States
men and publicists the world over have
praised the American constitution be-
cause its trainers had the wisdom to
separate the three great organic pow
ers Of government, and to maintain
them in coordinate independence.
But the gentlemen who demand that
the rate making power be vested in a
commission do not seem to comprehend
the sort of power they are invoking. The
! power to make rates for the carriage of
articles of interstate traffic, if granted
at all, is granted as q regulation Of COM
! gin, and where does it end? It begins
with the buying and ends with the sell
mere incident of cOmmerce-the carriage
can it not regulate the main clements
the buying and selling price? It has
not done So but why may it not, if it
can fix the price of carriage between the
buyer and the seller? How would the
business men of ChicacO like to have
their purchases of commodities for inter
state shipment regulated by a commits
siOn? If cOngres fixes the price of haul
ing articles of interstate traffic is there
any reason why it should not fix the com
pensation of brokers employed in such
t~raffic2 There is none.
"If the power to fix rates for the car
rage OF interstate ~xists-Whic
1 do not now deny-no reasonable argu-
ment can be made against the right of
congress to fix buying and selling prices,
brokerage and all charges connected with
the traffic, from the producer to the con-
sumer. Remember, it is not merely be-
cause railroads are public service corpora
tons that congress exercises the power of
regulation, but because they carry inter
state traffic. In other words, the power
IS exercised not over the corporation, but
over the commodities it carries. Let ev-
cry merchant and every broker here to-
nlghu, and every business man who Buys
and sells in other states than Illinois, IN
derStand that the congressional power to
make rates on interstate traffic, logically
carries with It the power to regulate buy
ing, selling and brokerage, for these are
al parts of the commerce which congress
IS empowered to regulate"
Mr.. Peck then showed that the power to
regulate commerce. conferred upon con-
gress by the constitution, was subject to
the limitation that no preference should
De given by any regulation Of m
TO the ports of one state over the ports
of any other state. He cOntended that
under his limitation it was inevitable that
government rate making could only be
carried out upon the basis of a distance
tariff, which, while it would be within the
provisions of the constitution. would be
hopelessly destructive of the commercial
and industrial fabric of the which
mas been built up under the adjusted svs-
TEN OF tariffs, under which a scientific at
tempt has been made to equalize the dis
Of geographical locations, and
pace the uHIerenI reducing sections of
the country on as near an equality in the
markets to which they ship, as is oossible
The discussion Of this constitutional linn
1tatton upon the power to make rates was
very thoroughly presented by Mr. Peck
ana constituted the principal feature Of
his address.
In conclusion Mr.. Peck said: THE bust
ness men OF this great city, so largely
aepresenLed here tonight, can not afford to
commit their commercial destiny to the
dangers Of an untried economic expert
ment."
.
n RrRGhrFnur at C.-v--FuM 49,