The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-11-06
son TRYING TO GET DADDY VI
I'll PIE COUNTER.

Tn editor of the Subsidized News.
who broke into the pastofhce at
Greensboro n has been licking
stamps under the Grandfathcr clause
while writing editorials at the dicta-
ton of Butler ana Adams. is now
seeking to return the compliment paid
him by his ~parentage by celebrating
the older link between the Industrial
News II patriotism as the one man
in the state competent to control rail-
roads and curl the greedy propen-itics
of the Southern Railway Trust.
In following this fliaI and political
duty, the Subsidized News were posi-
bly, less forgetful of its friend the
Southern were it more hopeful of the
success Of its badge of Responsibility,
Judge Douglass. As il is, it scents good
business in insisting upon II ma with
a record Of corporate honesty. upon
the firm assurance that he Will be
beaten anyhow. As Corporation COM
missioner, Judge Douglass would
doubtless see to it that the railroads
were made to follow thor duty - the
public with the same earncstucss
which he displayed in his decisions
while on the Supreme Court bench OF
the state.
Likewise, Judge Douglass as Corp
grafton Commissioner, would doubtless
suffer from the same limitations whicn
marked the cOurs of his railroad at
titude on the bench, as we'll as profit
by the practice and information which
he there obtained in that vital line
Of Investigation.
For, while progressive as a Judge.
Judge Douglass had his definite limi-
tations as a partisan. And the parti-
san was stronger than the Judge. ever
when a railroad was the culprit at the
bar. Between furnishing a railroad and
letting off a political crony, Judge
Douglass was possibly torn in mind
with conflicting desire, but he did
not hesitate in action. BY his partisan
loyalty, the friend went free, even if
the railroad thereby escaped.
Is it reasonable to suppose that in
Il quaSi-judicial office such as that Of
CORPORATION Commissioner, this trait
would influence him less than it did
when he was one of the five represen-
tatiVes of the highest law of the land?
We do not make this charge of jul
dicial short-sightedness when q politi-
cal favorite was in the foreground as
any thing other than a mental bias
for which Judge Douglass was not re-
spOnsibIe. We do not even charge
it as a conscious wrong. But We do
insist upon it as a fact, and submit
an example in point:
In the 123nd North Carolina reports
at page 1852, there may be found an
opinion in the case of state vs.. South
ern Railway in which was declared
valid and binding the section of the
railroad commission act of 1891 pre-
venting and making q misdemcanOr
the giving of free passes to certain ia
| Vored persons. In the GEAR of ruin, 1896
there a been elected from Wayne
county that illustrious Yankee bum
! mer, carpct-baSger and Freedman's
Bureau friend of Ham,, Hiram T.
Grant, he who recently undertook 20
docket a case as removed from the
Superior Court upon his own motion
of accommodation of anything that
smelt of a trust. Naturally the South
ern Railway desired a property in a
Statesman of SO positive a type, and
as Il retainer it issued him a free
! pass on which he was enabled to ShoW
the light of his %eatures in Raleigh
and elsewhere free of charge. But it
50 happened tina the southern vas
indicted under the law for carrying
its friend. Outrage. damnation and
:- Jr H. ,,;l-..I. ,.,IJ ,Af
transport free of charge the gentle
man who had arranged with Marion
Butler the designation between the
then virtuous Populists and the Re
publicanS which was known as ia
sion" why, what was to become of the
railroads? So the case was hotly con-
tested. but in the trial before Judge
T~imbcrIake at the March term Of
Wake Superior Court, 1898, the rail
road was convicted. Up to the Su-
Iremc Court went the case. and down
came the opinion UNFOLDING the law
and convicting the defendant. When it
is remembered that it was Il Fusion
court. the clearness of The statute will
scarcely be open to doubt. II was,
however, in the following words:
"That if any ommon carrier sub
ject to the provisions of this act shall
directly or indirectly, by any special
rate, rebate. drawback or other de-
vice. charge, demand. collect or re
ceive from II person OF persons a
greater or less compensation for N
service rendered on To be rendered III
the transportation Of passengers o.
! property subject to the provisions of
: this act than it charges. demands, col
leCts or receives from any other per
son or persons f." doing for him or
them a like mo contemporaneorts ser
vice in n transportation OF a IKE
kind Of traffic under substantially
similar circumstances and conditions,