The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-13
MORGAN DISCUSSES
 RATE REGULATION AIabama's Senior Senator Writs an Exhaustive Article CONSTITUTIONAL BEARINGS The Senator Says the Subject of Rate Regulation Becomes a Political ls-
 sue to the Detriment of
 Peoples True Interest.
CONSTITUTIONAL BEARINGS

has written for q recent issue of the Man ufacturer's Record of Baltimore a careful analysis of the regulation of railway rates by the national government. He reaches the conclusion that the courts, through the channels of justice already established, are the proper resorts for the correction of unreasonable rates and that the quick est and safest way to establish better rates is to shorten, simplify and lessen the cost of litigation. To create new trib- | unals or prescribe the rates by action of Congress, he asserts, will accomplish noth- ing toward reaching these results is of doubtful eonstitutionality and entails grave dangers to the industrial and pol- tieal well-being of the nation.
 The following extracts from Senator Morgan's article contain the substance of his discussion:
 This subject Is becoming a political is sue in the United States to the great detriment of the true interests of the peo- pie and will result in radical changes in the form, purposes, and character of the national government if 1t is not considered in fair and unimpassioned spirit in Con
 
 insists upon extra hazardous experiment in working the commerce clause of the constitution beyond Its legitimate limits of operation, either because of evils that can be otherwise prevented or for political purposes, there is all the greater reason for a calm consideration of this subject by the people,
 'srhe states at the time of the adoption faf ha t,, posing duties on goods coming from other states, under the authority of Article TX of the articles of the confederation, to the great distress of the people and this con- dltion of commercial warfare-more per haps than any other reason-caused the states to adopt the constitution. These are the rights that were surrendered by the states and delegated to Congress in the power to regulate commerce among the states and with other governments They did not yield the common law right that all freight charges by common car rers should be reasonable to be deter mined by a court and jury. The charges of common carriers had no connection with or dependence upon the power to prohibit the importation of exportation of goods into or from state, which the states then exercised and delegated to Congress if that power was in fact delegated
 ll5 pOAtlt WIltu IS DHc VI inference and not of distinct expression. has been expanded by constructions that threaten to swamp the most essential powers reserved to the states in the con- stitution. It is forming by aocretion. a new assemblage of powers in the hands of Congress, and the President and the federal judiciary, that will revolutonize the form of our government and will con vert it into a consolidated oigarchy, if l.. .trI L.. a..A principles
 "This attentuated thread of inference is already relied and is being used to bear the burden of quarantine and sani- tation laws, of laws for the regulation of insurance companies, and pure food laws, and divorce laws The addition to this burden of laws to nx the compensa- tion of common carriers on the railroad lines of corporations owned by stock holders and covered by vast sums of bonded indebtedness, and the public own ership of works intended for public ser vice, will follow as logical results, and this thread of construction will grow stronger until 1t will be wrought into a chain that will bind the states into an empire. and our citizenship will degen- crate into political and social bondage
 No power claimed as lever of con- solidation was ever so potent, so danger OuS or so TaDlu III Us ueNelOpIntnL lllO an instrument of despotism as the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the states. In it's train will soon follow all the rights reserved to the states and the people, and the party in authority in this country will have more powerful force in it's command than the army and navy and treasury combined. It will be the railroads.
 "A view of the field that is to be cover ed by the assertion of the power of Con gress to fix arbitrary rates of transporta- ton by common carriers discloses an astounding series of results There are no limits to it's breadth, except the complete control of the entire railroad system which Is already the master money power in the United States. Tine number, name capital stock, property and indebtedness of these corporations Is given in Poors s manual. and together they have property holdings that exceed S15,OOO GO.OOO and stockholders and creditors in every com mercal country in the world.
 "The debts of these corporations were contracted on the basis of their charter rights and privileges granted by the states that created them. Any act of Congress that disturbs OF destroys these vested rights of stockholders and credi- tors, or greatly impairs their values, will be questioned in an unfriendly way by very powerful nations.
 The constitution has made the supreme court the great shield to protect the government and people from such dan gers When that Is abandoned and our protection Is turned over to Congress the political department of the govern ment-and it's laws are placed beyond all question as to their conclusive effect, the government will then become indeed, "a government of political parties instead of a government of constitutional laws.
 "The amount or the percentage of tolls or rates that railroad company or any common carrier may charge a shipper is not a constitutional question under the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the states. Neither Is 1t legisla- tive question that the constitution has committed exclusively to the determina- ton of Congress. It Is a question of law, independent of congressnal interpretation and of any final decision by It's legisla- tion That belongs inherently to the jurs- diction of the courts. as fixed in the constitution and no power can take from them its final decision.
 "In the end the decision of the supreme court of the United States will declare the law that will control oil other courts in thei instructions to juries that try questions of the reasonableness or rates charged by railroads, and as to the evi- dence that is admissible on the trial of such issues, so that there will be cer- tainty and finally in such cases through the channels of justice that are already established.
 Congress can accomplish nothing to relieve delays in reaching such results by creating new tribunals to pass upon such questions or by prescribing arbitrary rates of charges by common carriers. The