The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-10-13


government cOntrol of railroad proper
ties as proposed in the Esch- Towns ani
bill. which was considered at the last
session OF Congress-, is unfair, unjust
to the railroads, opposed to the funda-
mental principles of Anglo-Saxon jur-
isDrudence and is equivalent to pro
Viding by statute for the enforcement
of commercial lynch law. is in sub
stance the reply of the railroads to the
agitation for railroad rate legislation
as outlined by President Samuel Span-
Ger in an address this evening before
the Newark board of trade
Mr.. Spencer said:
Up to the present time shipper and
carrier have been free to work together
without political interference to IA
cilitate the establishment and develop
ment of new industries to reach out
for new markets Tor our farmers and
manufacturers: to create new cOmmun-
tiles, and maintain the prosperity OF
those already established. and to CO.
operate to the fullest possible extent
to enlarge the volume of both our DO
meStic and fOreiGn trade.
1T is now proposed to change this
system. and substitute for it one in
which artificial bureaucratic methods
will take the place of natural laws OF
trade and commerce. which have been
the controlling force in the evolu
ton OF the present system.
"And it must be borne in mind. that
it is proposed to give these enormous
powers to BODY on whom en- respon-
Sibility rests or can rest for the pres
ervatiOn or maintenance of the rail
road property or for the discharge of
its financial obligations or the fulfill
ment of its duties to the public as an
efficient common carrier.
'The President in his last annual
message laid special emphasis upo::
the necessity for doing away with ,e-
bates, and for the keeping of the high
ways of transportation open to ali
upon equal terms. There is no issue
or controversy before the people or
Congress as to whether or not rebaIes
or secret discrimination should be stop
ped. No one desires more than the
the railway managers themselves that
there should be an end to all such
practices.
mo rational suggestions have been
made however. as to how the gran ting
of rate-making power to the interstate
commerce commits sion could be effec
tive to this end. A rebate or any sec
ret discriminatory device can, OF
course, be applied to a government
made rate as we'll as to one made <y
the carrier
In fact. a rate established by the
commission and thereafter unalterable
by the carrier. in reduction or other
wise, except upon petition to the COM
mission, instead ,f serving as cure
or a preventive WOULD be 4 distinct
incentive towards secret reduction.
when commercial conditions demanded
and 4 public and legal reduction could
not be promptly made.
Zone of the most serious objections
to the legislation proposed is that un-
der it a rate once fix~u DIV the COM
mission would continue in force 1nden-
nitely, unless changed by the commits
sion or by the court.
"The carrier would. therefore. have
no power to make either reductions
or increases to meet new conditions.
Slow but steady paralysis would creep
into the international arteries through
which the blood Of commerce flows,
and the transportation system would
gradually become numb and rigid. All
rates would seen be machine-made on
1Y. and commerce and industrial cen
ters now acknowledging no bounds for
the ultimate distribution of their pro
ducts. would FIND themselves operating
in narrower zones finally circumscrib-
ed by governmental edicts as to where
their wares should go.
"The plan of comforting upon the
commission the Eower to make Or
revise rates and make them effective
prior TO review by courts. would he
open to the decisive objection that it
is necessarily unjust to the railroads,
and opposed to the fundamental pcin-
ciple of Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence
that the rights of property and persons