The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-13

bonds in the country. large or small As immense quantities of those secu-
 rites are held by savings banks. trust
 companies and life insurance compa- nies, whose solvency rests largely up- on the stability of these securities. the
 association also includes depositors In such institutions and holders of life
 and fire insurance policies. They be-
 lieve that when the great number or
 people who. in countless ways have their savings invested in these securi-
 ties are taken into confederation R may be safely said that it ia the plain people of this country who own the railroads and who are most interested in their preservation as income prop
 critics. This follows. necessarily, they
 represent, from the fact that one- eighth of all the capital of the coun- try is invested in these properties and their stocks and bonds are the prin-
 cipal form of easily convertible secu-
 rities.
 While 1t is not argued that any legis-
 lation that Congress might be dis
 posed to enact would be of so Fevolu-
 tionary a character as to cause the pre-
 sent investors to throw their holdings
 upon the market in sufficiently large
 quantities to cause panic. they be- lieve that if authority to establish
 rates is taken from these vitally tn-
 terested in the successful management of the property and the development of
 the territory traveread. on which 1t Is
 depended for its. business. and placed
 in the hands of disinterested commis-
 sion, then, no matter how honestly the commission might seek to deal justly
 with localities and individuals. a state 1R nNpG pGN N,,- fn ing an untutored savage on a railday
 engine with permission to pull what
 ever levers he chose, It is not the
 likelihood that such power would be
 abused, they say, that arouses their apprehension but what they consider
 the imposishiiity of any limited num-
 Der of men, few of them versed in the
 business. of determining the rates for the railroads of the United States with
 any reasonable chance of performing
 their work without injustice to the
 railroads. Tn support of their conten-
 tons they point out that an indepen-
 dent examination of the records of the
 commission shows that from 1887 until the preesnt time the commission has
 found but twenty-six cases of rates
 unreasonable in themselves, or but one
 and one-half annually. Not one of these decisions was sustained by the courts and there has not been a single
 case of rates unreasonable in them
 selves established in the courts since
 the Interstate Commerce Commission
 act was passed. One of the most re- markable feature of the analysis
 of the commission. as reported to the
 Association for Maintaining the Rights
 of Property by its attorneys, has been that in almost ninety-three per cent of the cases decided by the commis- sion where appeals have been taken to the courts, the courts have reversed the commission. From its creation in 1887 until last October the Commits sion rendered 297 formal decision covering 353 cases, as in some instances cases were heard together. This was a period of seventeen years, and the decisions therefore averaged about seventeen and one-half per annum. Acting favorable to the compIainants were taken in 194 cases or 54.96 per cent of the cases decided. So that the complaints coming before 1t which the commission held were we'll founded averaged eleven and one-half per an- mum. Tn the great majority of the cases the carriers complied with the decisions, only forty three suits having been instituted to enforce the orders of the commission, OT dU dNEIdHO OE NWO anu On6~nAlL per annum. The net result of the action of the courts has been that in one of these cases the commission was sus- tained in part by the Supreme Court and in one was sustained by the Circuit Court and one appeal was taken These were both cases of discrimination be- tween localities. In thirty cases the commission was reversed; two have been withdrawn. five have been long pending but have not been pressed for a hearing. and four are still pending. The record shows two afirmances. and thirty reverasls.
 These facts have caused the holders of the stocks and bonds, who, as the owners of the property are the most interested parties in the controversy to question very strongly the justice or expediency of comforting the au- thority to fix rates upon the commits sion, such rates being operative until the courts take action. It Is pointed out that as far as experience is a guide, as 90 per cent of the decisions of the commission have been recersed by the courts, such a provision as that proposed would probably accomplish injustice in 90 per cent of the eases which would be affected. under the proposed plan until the courts granted relief. For this injustice there could be no remady. the counsel for the as- sociation maintain because no recovery could be had from the shippers whose goods had been carried upon unjustIy low rates. It Is further represented that in case of an appeal to the Supreme Court, 1t is expressly provided there shall be no stay under any cir cumstanees so that therefore, should the percentage be maintained and the carriers be successful in 90 per cent. of the appeals. they would have no remedy whatever for the wrongs ac. COmplfNhed by tha Ordera if thS ooy,