The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-06-03
HISTORY OF THE ALABAMA
RAILROAD COMMISSION
BY JOHN wIrHERsPooN DusosE.

commission of three citizens to hear the
case. If there was appeal from the com
missions judgment, then the chancellor
must appoint a second commission whose
judgment must be final as against the
! railroad. That is what the bill meant.
The Legislature adjourned in December
for the Christmas holidays, until Feb
ruary !, without acting on the railroad
/ commission project. The House bill Ill,
came from the committee on commerce
! and common carriers early in the month
and aroused the body to great excite
I ment The republican party was not yet
extinct in the state. A few months be-
fore large state convention of repub-
lieans, led by George Turner. United
| States marshal. convened in the hall OF
the House of Representatives and not in
the ripest day of the reconstruction time
was the party in higher fettle. Now
every republican and every man connected
with the railroads was In desperate tenn
per and firmest alliance with each other
to beat House bill III.
/ The debate was prolonged over several
days. Most of the best men, Governor
| Watts. Mr.. Langdon and their peers spoke
/ at length for the bill and with fervor.
| Mr.. B. M. Long, republican from Walker,
| addressed the House in great animation
and ability against the bill. Mr.. Long
| said he had been told there was "popu-
| lar upheaval." there was a "gound swell"
| impelling the house forward to create a
railroad commission. He was not COM
| Portable when he heard of the proximity
\ of a ground swell" He was an eye
witness to a phenomenon of that descrip-
| tion which threw Abraham Lincoln and
mighty armed host over upon Alabama
and he hoped never to see another. He
looked upon railroad property as private
! property. If the state would build a
| competing line, wherever the road built.
owned and operated by private investors
proved incompetent or failed to serve the
! public good he would approve the policy
| He expected to see the railroad COM
mission travelling In great splendor over
| the roads, In cushioned cars and with
, other outward evidences of extraordinary
| dignity, corresponding to its power. Mr..
| Long averred that he was far from es-
pousing the doctrines of Jefferson, but
the extreme power given by the bill to
| the commission exceeded his views. If
private property in railroads was held
subject to state commission control, there
could be no valid reason why houses
lands. iron, in all relations to persons.
should be exempt from state commission
control. Every opponent of the bill de
clared the bright prospects of Alabama
! had been suddenly cast down and dry
rot was our contemplate fate if it became
law.
The Alabama legislators were laborng
nightly with their own affair when a de-
cson of the federal court in Atlanta was
spread before the country and the sup
porters of the commission bill took fresh
| heart. Justice william B. Woods, pre-
siding over the circuit court of the United
tot
An alien 1illey by name. was owner of
100 shares of the stock Of the Savannah,
Florida and Western railroad. for which
| he paid $4,000 in money. The Georgia
railroad commission had placed the valu-
alton of this road at $5,55O000 and pub
| lished tariff of charges for freight and
! passenger service estimated to yield to
the company an income of per cent net
! per annum. The board of directors of
the company had placed the valuation of
their road at s7OOOOOO and fixed tariff
! of charges estimated to yield 10 per cent
net per annum. Tilley prayed the court
! to enioin the Georgia railroad commits
sion from interference with its private
| property In the aforesaid railroad stock
| Robert Toombs was the leading counsel
! for the commission. After argument the
court held that the constitution of Geor-
/ gia authorized the legislature or COM
manded it, as may be, to regulate rail-
| road business In Georgia, and that the
commission had prescribed rates not in
| compatible with the rights of private
property held in railroad stocks. Upon
the plea of complainant that the legis-
lature had no power to delegate its legis-
lative function to the commission, the
court announced as follows:
IF the act had declared that no rail-
road company should charge other than
! just and reasonable rates; and that the
board of directors of railroad company in
| the state should prescribe maximum
! charges, which would be posted at each
station, and beyond which ticket and
! freight agents should not go, 1t would
not be claimed reasonably that the d.
! rectors were clothed with legislative
| powers. Is the case altered when the
general assembly, instead of making the
board of directors the body to fix maxi
| mum rates, appoints an Independent and,
1t is fair to presume, a more impartial
| body for that purpose? The nature of the
duty is not changed by the change in
the person or persons on whom the duty
| is imposed"
The house bill III passed that body.
went to the senate and was there
amended and returned for concurrence in
the amendments. which concurrence was
| promptly refused by the house and with
| great show of sentiment.
We may reach a better understanding
of the situation by brief eptome of the
| essential features of the. house bill. ID
There was to be a state commission. COM
! posed OF three members nominated to
| the senate by the governor, the chair
man to be a citizen familiar by practice
with railroad management, and one of
| the others to be a citizen learned In the
| law. (2) The commission must fix the
| entire tariff of rates, both passenger and
freight on all the roads doing business
In Alabama. (S) The railroads had no re-
| course from the acts of the commission
| except appeal to the commission itself.
| for rehearing and. and the one rehear-
! ing was final. Section Is of the bill pro-
yided that mo right of action against
| railroad now secured by common law
on the statutes of this state shall be
abridged by the act" The authority of
the commission was extended to "all per-