Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-04-25
The Man From Texas.

constitutional lawyer. tie has NJ
superior in the senate. He establish.
cd his claim to tho title this week
when he signally discounted in ar.
gument Senators Spooner and Knox
who have been acgarded as oracles
of the law. The man who can pu,
them to rout as Senator Bailey did
has fixed his position as constitu.
tional authority.
The subject under consideration
was the railroad rate bill. The
point i'll controversy was the suspen.
sion by Circuit courts pending final
action of rates fixed by a commission
and contested by the carrier affected
by them.
Elaborate arguments were made
by Senators Spooner and Knox, that
congress could not deprive the in
ferior federal courts of the power to
issue interloeutory orders W h e II
railroads asked for relief. They
read from text books and they cited
decisions. The constitution says
the judicial power of the United
= States shall be vested in one Su-
preme court and such inferior
courts as the congress may from
time to time ordain and establish. !"
The eminent senators contended
that when inferior courts had been
established and given jurisdiction
over particular subject they en-
josed full judicial power which CON
sress could not limit. 1t could not,
they contended, deprive the courts
OF the right to issue temporary in
functions which is part Of the
common law of equity.
The two senators made plausible
arguments. Senator Bailey, in re-
plying to them, made convincing
one. His contention was that as
congress had tie power to create the
inferior courts and destroy them, it
necessarily had the power to limit
them. He took up the opinions
Senator Spooner had cited and show
ed that he had read the views of dis
senting judges as if they were the
law He pointed out instances where
the senator from Wisconsin had
suppressed parts of decisions which
contradicted or qualified what the
senator had read. Senator Bailey
dealt with Senator Knox in the same
way and showed how he, too, had
misled the senate as to the law.
Senator Spooner did not enjoy
dissection 1t was an unusual ex
perience for him. Usually he is
quick to interrupt, to ask questions,
and to indicate blot if his adver-
sarv has left one. On this occasion
he was. mute and unhappy. He was
unable to find any flaws in the com
pac, and lucid argument of his OPP
ponent.
II Senator Spooner should be
urged by colleagues opposed to rail
road rate regulation to reply to SEN
ator Bailey he could, with reason,
say what Gallatin did when pressed
to reply to an argument made by
John Marshall when the two we're
in TIL house of representatives.
Sir" said Halllain, '.it is unanswer-
able"
The best argument is the one
which m a k S converts. Senator
Bailey's was equal to that test. When
the senator had concluded, Senator
Hale, himself a lawyer, said that the
power of congress to control all
federal courts, except the Supreme
court, had been proved. He said
the senate was about to agree on a
rate bill. and that Senator Bailey's
remarks had largely contributed to
that near and benelicient result" A
compliment of that kind ID seldom
paid in legislative body.
The senator from Maine went on
to say that he was for having rate
fixed by the interstate commerce
commission stand until set aside by
the Supreme court. Senator Aldrich,
the arch champion of the railroads.
could not believe his ears. He is
FOR suspensory orders which shall
be in force during two or three years
Of litigation. He said, in Mortified
tones, you mean the Circuit court"
81 mean the Supreme court" said
Senator Hale. The senator from
Rhode Island was strictly dumb.
Texas has sent many able men to
congress, but none better qualified
to represent the state and render
service to the public than Senator
Bailey. He has spiked the guns of
Senators Spooner and Knox and
made Senator Aldrich extremely un-
happy. Chicago Tribune.