The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-29

railway is the power of commercial life tion, clearly a property right. subject. of course. to the regulating power or the State. which created 1t, and to the interstate business of the United States All property rights in this country are protected by the Federal constitution, and the term liberty
 means not simply the physical privi- | lege of being out of jail, but the right
 freely to carry on ones business. using and enjoying ones faculties and liber- | ties, according to the law of the land. I Placing all of these in the hands of a commission is certainly wrong and l probably unconstitutional
 l There has been considerable discus sion as to the relation of the lcsche1 I Townsend bill to the preferences clause of the constitution. The bill undoubt- edly proposes comprehensive system of rate making by the commission If I 1t becomes a law, the most powerful body of men in the world will be the l interstate Commerce Commission of the | United States. There are nearly 2l5,- 900 miles of railroads in the United
 states and tho principal business of i most of them is interstate. The miie- age which the Esche-Townsend bill pro- | poses to put under the care of the In- l terstate Commerce Commission, exceeds | that of all Europe combined. The com stitution provides that mo preference shall be given by any regulation of | commerce or revenue to the ports Of one state over those of another aCan the Interstate Commerce Com- | mission--which under the Esche-Towri- | send Dill will stand in the place of Con- | 9ress--under this limitation make any preferences in its regulations of the ports of one State over those of an- l otherf
 If the constitutional provision ap- plies and Is binding on the Interstate 1 Commerce Commission, they cannot make preferences, but if, on the other hand, as they themselves insist, they will not be governed by this constitu- | tional provision in the making of rates,
 then I submit the power never should
 be given to them. It is an open ques- | ton today what would be the greater calamity to the people of the United States to have the constitutional pro- vision applied so that only distance | tariffs could be made to the ports of competitive States, or to have It held that the constitutional provision does not apply and may be disregarded. Tn either case the evil consequences would | be far beyond calculation.
 T have had the pleasure of reading | an opinion recently submitted to this | committee by the Interstate Commerce l.Commission, in which that body ad- Fyises you that the Constitution would | not stand in the way of their making rates, rules and regulations Gas pro- posed by the Esche-Townsend bill). hx- | ing differentials and eQualizing natural | advantages and disadvantages.
 SIt seems very plain to me that the 1 opinion of the commission Is entirely | wrong, but it seems equally plain that 1 if theip views are sound they invite | the people of the United States to ac- | cept them as the supreme arbitrators | of the commercial destinies or the na- | tion.
 'sWhen the States gave up to Con- sress the power to regulate commerce | among the several States, the smaller Stats insisted as a condition of grant | ing that power that this equality De- | tween ports of different States be pre- | served The provision now under con- sideration was one of the compromises l of the Constitution--hrst that Congress | should have the power to regulate | commerce among the States and sec | ondly, in so doing 1t should never pro- | tect the ports of one State over an- | other.
 Now. if the commission. in order l to avoid destroying commerce, would
 make an equal rate on the shipment | of cotton from Galveston to New York, | from Savannah to New York and from l New Orleans. Mobile and Pensacola to l New York, each of those points and | different distances and each being a | port of clearance and entry in dif- ! ferent State the natural advantage to l Savannah and Georgia cotton over the 1 others would be destroyed by pref l erence so extended to Galveston. New | Orleans and the other Gulf ports.
 "If the power to make rates Is con- | ferred upon the Interstate Commerce | Commission, that body will be imme- | diately confronted with the responsi- | bility of making rates to and from l every port in the United States.
 If the Interstate Commerce Commis-
 sion were gifted with super-human knowledge and a super human sense l of justice and fair dealing, they could
 not do what they are asking Congress l to permit them to do."
 | frmfranee t0 the Skating Contest 21