The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-21
SENATOR MORGAN
EXPRESSED HIS VIEWS BEFORE
 VOTE WAS TAKEN.
Gave Reasons Why the Railroad Rate Regulation Bill should Not
 pnsn.

Tn the united states Senate on fri- | day last, just before the vote on the
 railroad bill was taken. Senator Nor gan submitted the following remarks. which have the merit of candor, cour- age and a large amount of legal and l common sense:
 MT. Morgan. Mir. President. will be one of a few senators on this floor. I l think, which will cast his vote against | this bill If I had no other reason for | casting 1t, perhaps I might find suf- ncient justification in the criticisms
 those % gentiemenp r pvUhouSy' who sas they % intend
 this kind, involving g isa' the interests aa of of every person in the United States, a bill can hardly approve itself to the | public judgment whose friends, when | they annaunce their support of 1t, de- nounce 1t as being the worst bill they ever had to deal with.
 Ham not concerned about the pub He sentiment of the people of the Unit l ed States on this, bill as some of the | gentlemen are who have recently ad All they want under the Constitution ! and laws of the United States are the rights which are guaranteed to them They claim nothing else. While I am 1 a member of this body they will not | fail to get their constitutional rights through my delinQuence or through l my fear of political consequences. The people of Alabama on a very recent occasion have adopted con- stitution which the Senator from Penn | sylvania (Mr. Knox) referred to in the | early part of the session, and he had document printed here in which the
 constitution and the. statutes of Ala from Pennsylvania was evidently very much impressed with the soundness of the doctrines and of the propriety of
 ordained in the constitution of Alabama and have been enacted by its Legislature; otherwise he would
 not have introduced those papers to the approval
 They provide a system. Mir President, that Is perfectly just and right and in ican people since the first railroad was ever chartered in the United States, an experience under which we have lived and under which we have prospered, perhaps I might. properly say, as no nation on earth has prospered in any other time or under any other clreum-
 stances. The railroad system charter ed by the States. sustained by the States by grant of land and money, and sustained by the generations that
 have passed away now, by subscriptions of stock that have been paid Into their treasuries-railroads thus chartered
 and thus supported by the States and the people of the States have been the
 prime factors in this wonderful prog ress in our prosperity.
 During that period of time some or
 the roads have been combined together in such a way by the covetousness of hgreat capitalists as that their opera Stions have been a serious injustice to the people of the United States at large. But notwithstanding that in- firmity, which is easy enough to cor rect If we chose to correct 1t, they have
 been not only the principal factors in
 our rapid and great progress out they
 are today the most infiuent,ial. Of ,.an any These railroad corporations have drawn into their service more talent than the American Government has same length of time in the Congress of the United States-more skill, more ability, and as much of the elements or honorable success. s ,rnds s9 m dsuSn nS ,bis country we ought to be eonsiderate of their rights as well as of the rights or the. people. Some recent events have
 benefaction and in kindness and in
 charity to our people that l do not feel quite Justified in rising on the floor of science down to that point of such re- bellion against the truth.
 The State of Alabama, Mir. President, has instructed me in her constitution as to the principles upon which I shall | deal with railroad corporations, and in | opposing this bill follow that constitu- | tion and follow the legislation of my l State as nearly as practicable. l do not | feel at liberty to contradict all of the | principles of that constitution and of | vldual opinion, under any pressure whatever, whether 1t is Presidential or whether 1t Is political. in the scale against the rights, interests, and the convention assembled.
 I. therefore, follow their lead.
 tried to. re-enact the principles upon
 which they have predicated all their
 dealings with railroads, believing them
 to be perfectly just, and believing also
 that they will lead to the very best of
 Our people in the South have re-
 ceived very great advantage frcm
 these railroads, but we are more in-
 dependent of them than any other peo- great crops in the South, our cotton
 and pine timber, our coal, iron, and
 cement. for we have navigable streams that lead from the pine forests and the cotton fields and the coal and iron mines and the cement beds out Into the South ern Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mex ico, that very readily supply us with all the transportation that is needed for the purpose of getting our crops and productions to market. We are
 not in hurry to realize upon 6n our crops crops, ever presented on the face of the earth. If you get a little village or a rarm fifty miles away from the railroad you
 cal sell cotton at the full market price right at the door without reference to transportation. So through the bene- ficence of Providence in giving us these monopolistic advantages, and also Tn
 the Transportation of our products to
 market, we are placed in condition
 where we are not necessarily dependent
 upon the forboarance or the good treat
 ment of the railroad companies They
 come to us eagerly seeking our pa
 tronage.
 vote that I give here. because l would
 dv to the rescue of any community in
 the United States, no matter where IL
 may be, that is really oppressed through
 the agency of the combinations who
 very wealthy lines of railroad.
 Following that principle. MT. Presi-
 dent, I have sought to make only two
 bill They both relate to the constitu-
 tional rights of the people, not or Ala
 bama alone, but of the entire Union.
 I had the mortification to see that the
 committee of the House and the House
 in It's vote on the Hepburn bill had torn
 out of the existing law those sections
 which quoted the Constitution of the
 United States in respect trial by jury
 Senate has refused to pay respect 10
 them. One section related to the right
 of trial by jury on questions that arise
 arise under this act They also re-
 lated to the restriction by constitu-
 tional ordination of power that mas grown to be a very dangerous power
 in England particularly. That was the power of the chancellors to take the Jurisdiction of subjects of this kind into their own keeping and to prevent
 Our fathers saw that 1t was necessary to put the seventh amendment in the Constitution in order to preserve these rights, the right of trlal by Iury Tn | involved was $30 or more and where | the right of action was plain, adequate,