The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-09
RATES MADE BY LAW
MORGAN DISCUSSES
 FREIGHT REGULATION.
Says the Censtitutioa is Being Stretched to FIX By Statute Quarantine, Pure Food, Divorce and
 other Things.

other ThlnGps
 Baltimore Dec. S.-(Special.) )-In this weeks issue of The Manufacturers Record United States Senator John T Morgan of Alabama discusses at length the general subject of the regulation by statute laws of rates charged for transportation by common carriers. He says:
 This subject Is becoming a political Issue in the United States. to the great detriment of the true interests or the people. and will result in radical changes in the form. purposes ana cnar- acter of the National Government II i' is not considered in fair and unim- pa assioncd spirit in Congress and by the people.
 Tn every respect 1t is judicial ques- ton that will be decided finally by the Supreme Court of the United states as a question of constitutional law, unless that court, under. political pressure, shall refuse to assert its just and right full Jurisdiction, on the pretext that an act of Congress fixing the rates or charges by railroads involves ques- that court will follow Congress obe- diently, and yield to 1t the right to prescribe arbitrary rates without re- gard to their reasonableness or jus tice
 .'If the Supreme Court exerts its ju- risdiction to inquire into the question whether Congress, under the power 10 regulate commerce among tho states can prescribe and establish arbitrary rates of tolls or charges for or against all interstate common carriers, they will necessarily consider a freight rate as a contract between the shipper and the carrier. and not as a tax or fino assessed and levied by statute.
 There is no danger that the Su- preme Court will ever hold that the power of Congress to regulate com merce among the States is an arbitrary power to prescribe, to either of the par ties to a contract for the transportation of cenmerce. the rate of charges that shall be paid for such service.
 Neither Is it to be apprehended that the Supreme Court will ever uphold an act of Congress that amends or re- peals any charter of a railroad com pany granted by a State. or that t will amend any power or make any limitatian on a power granted by State to a railroad corporation to es- tablish rates of freight that are not obstructive or that do not have the ef- feet of regulating commerce among the States.
 l IOukTtSS AHStSlS opoh CAsN S hazardous experiments in working the commerce clause of the Consultation beyond its legitimate limits of opera tion, either because of evils that can be otherwise prevented or for politi- cal purposes, there is al the greater reason for a calm consideration of this subject by the people, and for a fur ther reliance upon the fact that no legislative power of tho States or of Congress can withdraw this subpect or the final decision of the reasonahleness of a freight rate, whether imposed by a statute law O.. agreed upon by con- tract between the parties. from the decision of a court and jury
 Senator Morgan discusses elaborately the meaning of the constitutional pro vision that the Congress shall have power to regulate commerce among the several States, and referring to the delegation of such power to the Con gress, says:
 'This power, which Is one of strained inference, and not of distinct express sion, has been expanded by construc- ltions that threaten to swamp the most essential powers reserved to the States in the Constitution. It Is forming. by accretion, a new assemblage of powers in the hands Of Congress, and the Pres ident, and the Federal Judiciary. that will revolutionize the form of our Gov ernment and will convert it into con solidated oligarchy, if 1t is not prevent cd by a return to first principles.
 This attenuated thread of inference is already relied and Is being used to bear the burden of quarantine and san itation laws, of laws for the regula- ton of insurance companies. and pure food laws and divorce laws. The ad- dition to this burden of laws to fix the compensation of common carriers on the railroad lines of corporations, own ed by stockholders and covered by vast sums of bonded indebtedness, and the public ownership of works intended for public service, will follow as logical re- suits, and this thread of construction will grow stronger until it will be wrought into a chain that will bind the States into an empire. and our citizen ship will degenerate into political and social bondage"
 Senator Morgan takes the ground that in the end the decision of the United States Supreme Court will de- clare the law that will control all other courts in their instructions to the ju- rfes that try questions of the reason ableness of rates charged by railroads and as to the evidence that is admissi- ble on the trial of such issues so that there will be certainty and finality in such cases through the channels of jus tice that are already established, and that Congres can accomplish nothing to relieve delays in reaching such results by creating new tribunals to pass upon such questions or by prescribing arbi- trary rates of charges by common car riers. He says:
 '"The only real and just power of control in respect of the freight and passenger rates of transportation is free and fair competition, protected by penal law against interference and all abuses in the nature of monopoly, and be tried by jury in the courts"
 MAKE S2SOO CHRISTMAS MONEY.