The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-02
NACHMAN & MEIER TIFF.

judicial procedure. No man. and no corporation, should be adjudged guilty without such procedure, and the time re- quired therefor cannot under free government be pleaded as an excuse for conviction and punishment without trial. To give body which Is not a Court the power to both decide judicial questions and to execute its own find ings, Is to provide by statute for the enforcement of lynch law.
 It has been claimed that 1t Is not pro- posed to grant a general rate making power to the Commission, but only the power to correct an unreasonable or an unjustly discriminatory rate after complaint and hearing. In almost all of the arguments presented on the sub ject, and in the Esch-Townsend bill which passed the House of Represent atives at its last session, the term "a rate" and not "rates' has been used. In almost every case in which the ln- terstate Commerce Commission has at tempted to exercise the power now
 sought, the opinion of the Commission
 has involved a multitude of rates. .n- stead of a single rate. In the famous Maximum Rate Case, the number which would have been affected had the de- cision of the Commission been sustain cd, would have been over two thous- and. and the effect of that one decision would have been to revolutionize, not to say destroy. the entire rate making basis from the principal cities east of the Mississippi and west of Pittsburg and north of the Ohio River to all points in the South, and in turn this would have compelled a readjustment of substantially ail the rates from New England, New York and Pennsylvania tn ipta nf ti.aa fa, t,, tbz South. This decision of the Commits sion was promulgated at a time when over 50 per cent. of all the railroads in the Southeastern States were in the hands of receivers. unable to earn their fixed charges, and under necessity of complete financial reorganization at enormous loss to their owners effective, would have prevented the re- suscitation of those properties upon the present sound financial basis. and would have indefinitely postponed, if not rendered impossible, the subsequent rapid development of the transporta- tion interests of the South which has been essential to the great industrial growth and prosperity of the Southern States in the past decade. When the order of the Commission was promuI- gated. such reduction meant ruin to the carriers but with the increased volume of business and the increased efficiency of the resuscitated carriers. the play of the natural laws of trade and commerce has led to an equitable reduction in those rates. This has been accomplish ed after consultation between the car riers and the several communities with out violence. without disaster to any interest and without commercial dis turbance In other sections such as would have followed the arbitrary ac-
 tion of a governmental tribunal
 This entire question of relationship between the National Government and the carriers is one of vital interest to the Southern States, and to those who are engaged in the further development of their commerce and industry. It Is one which should be studied by every merchant. every manufacturer and by every voter If the Gulf and South At
 lantic ports are to develop an export and import trade; if the growth of the manufacturers of the South, and the de- velopment of her natural resources, are to continue the owners of the transpor- tation systems of that section must be permitted to continue to exercise a req sonable judgment and discretion In promptly meeting market and commer- cial conditions as they arise. without recourse to the slow process of govern mental hearings. This is not only Q commercial necessity for both the car rier and the shipper, but 1t Is equitable and fair. at least until there is substan-
 tial evidence of misuse of that dis cretion, and after a searching investi- gation, no such evidence has yet been produced.