The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1905-11-29

Railroad Control
Means Commercial
n Law"
BY ANUE SPENCER. President outhern
Railway

HE president in his last annual message laid special en-
phass on the necessity for doing away with rebates and
for the keeping of the highways of transportation open to
all UPON EQUAL TERMS. There is no issue o con-
troversy before the people o r congress as to whether re-
bates o secret determinations should be stopped. No one desires
more than the railway managers themselves that there should be an
end to all such practices. They are a detrimental to the TRANS
FORMATION interests as they are to the great body of shippers.
No RATIONAL suggestions have been made, however, as to
how the granting of rate making power to the interstate commerce
commission could be effective to this end. A rebate or any secret dis
criminatory device can, of course, be applied to a government made
rate a well as to one made by the carrier.
In fact, a rate established by the commission and therefore unal-
terable by the carrier in reduction or otherwise except upon petition
to the commission, instead of serving as a cure o a preventive would
be a distinct incentive toward SECRET REDUCTION when COM
mercial conditions demanded and a public and legal reduction could
not be promptly made.
One of the most serious objections to the legislation proposed is
that under it a rate once fixed by the commission would continue in
force INDEFINITELY unless changed by the commission or by
court. The carrier would thereafter have no power to make either re-
auctions or increases to meet new conditions. Under such a law all
rates would in time become commission rates, and the functions Of rail
way managers in making adjustments TO MEET THE EXIGEN-
C1ES OF COMMERCE and in extending the sphere of usefulness
of the transportation system of the country would, step by step, come
to an end.
Slow but steady paralysis would creep into the industrial arteries
through which commerce flows, and the transportation system would
gradually become numb and rigid; the present activity of railway
managers would be largely eliminated as a n agency in the intelligent
development of the resources of the country. Al. rates would soon be
machine made only, and commerce and industrial centers now &C.
knowledging no bounds for the ultimate distribution of their products
would find themselves operating IN NARROWER AND MAR
w ZONES, finally circumscnbed by government edicts as to
where their wares should 60.
Virtually there is not a single respect in which the interstate COM
merce commission resembles a court. 1t has extensive administrative
duties to perform. It is required also to investigate, to hear and to in
stitute complaints and to prosecute offenders against the act to regu-
late commerce. In other words, besides its numerous other functions
it is a sort of railroad grand jury. In the courts of the country a
grand jury cannot try a case which it has investigated and inaugu-
rated, and no member of the grand jury can sit upon the jury which
tries the case. The commission which investigates oAenses AND
INITIATES PROSECUTIONS may and does in addition sit in
judgment upon some cases which have been the subject of the investi-
CATION and prosecution. In other words, the plaintiff in the litigation
is the judge that tries the case.
TO PLACE IN THE HANDS OF ONE TRIBUNAL WHICH Is OR
MAY be PROSECUTOR, JURY AND JUDGE AND At THE SAME
TIME ExEcUTioNER IS EQUIVALENT TO PROVIDING BY STATUTE
FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF COMMERCIAL LYNCH LAW.