The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-28
Geo. R. Peek Appears Before
Senate Commerce Committee.
Declares Rebates Have Ceased
or Can Be Corrected.
LIBERTY MEANS MORE
Than Simply Remaining Out of
Jail He Says.
Believes Position of Commerce
Commission Is Wrong.

Washington. April 2S.-George R. /
Peck, general counsel of the Chicago, /
Milwaukee & st. Paul railway, ap-
peared before the senate commerce
committee today. He said in part:
"It is certainly not practicable
even if it were wise-to endeavor by
legislation, to eliminate the activities
which lie at the basis of commerce,
trade and traffic. and to substitute in
their place the rigid control and regu-
lation of paternaI government. That
is the Chinese method and I trust new
er viii be the American method Men
viii always strive for their own ad-
vantage and out of this strike all COM
merciaI progress has come.
THAT commerce, carried on without
any governmental regulation or con-
troll would best serve the public.
don't believe. And yet it does not fol-
low that it should be subjected to the
minute influence of a body of men who
IN the nature of things cannot grasp
its needs and its requirements. and the
needs and requirements of the pub
lie"
Rebate System Can Be Corrected.
Mr.. Peck insisted that rebates had
ceased or could be corrected under the
present laws, and continuing said the
proposed legislation, if rebates still ex-
listed at all, would not not be effective
He said: "A railway company can
cut a rate made by a commission as
easily as it can cut rate made by
itself Making a rate is one thing
cutting rate is another. and they
have no possible relation to each
other.
If a rate had been made by a govern
ment commission for the last 20 years it
is perfectly plain that the rebate sys-
TEN would have grown and hourished
as it did under a system which allowed
railways to make their own rates.
speaking for my own company-and
in sense for many other companies
have only to say that they VIII well
come any legislation, criminal or rene
dlaI which IN any degree can make the
payment of rebates more difficult and
increase the certainty of detection, and
of punishment
But if it is supposed that the pay
ment of rebates can be suppressed by
giving to the committee the power to
fix rates I suggest that such a result
is absolutely impossible.
Commercial Life and Death.
The rate making power upon any
railway is the power of commercial life
and death. 1T is, under the constitution,
clearly property right-subject of
course, to the regulating power of the
state which created it-and as to inter-
state business-of the United States.
All property rights in this country are
protected by the federal constitution;
and the term liberty means, not sim
ply the physical privilege of being out
of Jail, but the right freely to carry
on ones business, using and enjoying
ones faculties and liberties according
to the law of the land.
Placing all of these in the hands of
a commission is certainly wrong. and
probably unconstitutional.
There has been considerable dis
cuss1on as to the relation of the Esch- /
Townsend bill to the preference clause
10
edly, proposes a comprehensive system
Of rate making by the committee If /
IT becomes a law the most powerful /
body of men in the world viii be the in I
terstate commerce commission of the 7
United States.
Exceeds All Europe.
There are nearly $4,000 miles of rail- I
road in the United States and the prin- I
cipal business OF most of them is in I
terstate- The mileage which the Esch- /
Townsend bill proposes to put under the 1
care of the interstate commerce com +
mission exceeds that of all Europe com
plned. Ihe constitution provides thet +
no preference shall be given by anv reg
ulatiOn Of commerce or revenue to the +
ports of one state over those of another
can the interstate commerce com I
mtssion-which under the Esch-Towns- /
eud Dill VIII stand in the place of con-
gress-under this limitation make anv
preferences in its regulations of the
porls Oh one state over those Of an /
IF the constitutional provision apr,Iies
and is binding on the interstate com
Inerce commission, they can not make
preferences, but if on the other hand
as they themselves insist-thev will not +
De governed by this constitutional nr0-
VISION IN the making Of rates then /
submit the power never should be given
TO them. 1t is an omen question foIa1,
winch would be the greater calamity to
the people Of the United States-to have
the constitution applied so that the 0,,1,r
distance tarlns could be made to the
ports OF competitive states or tn have
II held that the constitutional rrO75fsio,7 I
Goes not apply and may be disregarded
an elSner case the evil consequences /
would be far beyond calculation.
Il have had the pleasure Of road
ing an opinion recently submitted to /
lhls committee by the Interstate COW,
merce commission in which that body /
ADVISES you that the c0Dsti+77+iC,,, +
would not stand in the wav of tbei,,
making rates rules and res11IatioT
(as proposed in the Fsch- -7To77-7,ee,,,I /
Dlll) ndng dtferentia1s and euuali5ir7cr o
Aisl 1-i al advantages and disadvantages /
Commission Is Wrong.
1T seems very plain to me that tba
opinion of the commission is entirajN-
wrong But it seems equally Dlafn I
tldl II their views are sound thev in
we ule people OF the United States to /
accept them as the sl1Drer7e erFi+.,-. /
ton. " me ma
When the states gave up to con- |
gress the power to regulate cOrn1,a7.ce /
among the several states the sr,7el7a
states insisted, as a coT5i+ilrl =
that power, that this equality befp,ae-,1
pofts OF olIerent states be preserved
they feared that the large states s,,7
the ports of the large states Vr-,75Ig5 -
gleLeffed over those of the smaller.
The provision now under consider to-,
ts one o4 tne surprises of the consri-