Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-02-03
IN THE HOUSE.
CONTINUED from Page One.)

Gates of this legislation have refrained
from penetrating the awful mystery
and have discreetly permitted the re-
lation between rebates and commission
rate making to remain a secret"
The present effort, Mccall called
political rate-makinS.'
Mr.. Bryan" he said, 1.-The once
ideaIized leader of his party for 4
time dethroned, but summoned back
again bv the overwhelming exodus of
silver Democrats at the last election.
Mr.. Bryan who might have brought
action for infringement. generously
hailed poiitieai rate-making as a de-
cisive step toward his cherished dog
ma, government ownership, and he
, fixed upon it the stamp of his empha
tic appreciation.
1.-THE Democratic party followed its
leaders and took UP the cause of rate
making with enthusiasm and unani-
nifty. AS for the Republicans, rate
fixing had been party policy by our
Just elected President and logic or no
logic, we were expected to get in line.
This was the genesis OF public opinion
on this point.
so far rs favoritsln is concerned, in
every one of its forms, l am opposed
to it. 1 would have you enact against
it the most drastic law which ingenu-
ity could devise. And I would have
the right of every man to a just rea-
sonable and equal rate taken to the
courts at the expense of the govern
ment in the first instance and ulti-
mately Of the railroads if they were
I'll 9
fective species of remedy. taken to
that forum where Anglo Saxon free
!om has won its MODEST triumph
[ prefer the natural and baneficient
iberty of the courts to the cast iron
equations OF a commission
Mccall contended the original act
.reating the Interstate Commerce
Commission did not grant the rate
making power and was not intended to-
The pending bill, he contendcd, gave
bower to set aside great groups Of
"atcs. 1t was a rate fixing scheme of
Host sweeping character.
You propose to confer on a mere hu-
ran agency a practical task that
would be superhuman' continued Nc
Call.
I'VE are to have a commission made
up of prodigies and paid splendid sala-
res. 7 he President, at Austin, Tex.
last April. before the two houses of the
Texas Legislature, gave his notion and
; lofty one it was of the character Of
the men who should constitute the
commission. They should not be sway
ed by any influence whatever. social
political or any other. to show improp-
of favoriteism to the railroads and. on
the other hand. If the rate is uniustlv
attacked, no matter if that attack
has behind it the feeling of prejudice
of 3? per cent. of the people they will
stand up against that attack This
is Il noble ideal. but where are these
parasons to he found? Even far high
er officers than commissioners are not
always found to he unresponsive to
public sentiment. The President IN
| doubtedly has selected for the commits
SION he has already flied. the men
whom he believed the best adapted to
the work. Nearly all the members of
the present Interstate Commerce COM
| mission We're appointed by him and yef
the House year ago proposed to abol-
| ish thlS commission absolutely. The
!
| nificent salaries and yet they were nn-
| cere moniously deposcG from office in
| scarcely year after the President had
appointed them. And the present can
al commission. even with the aid of
| the $4,000 press agent does not seem
to command the admiring approval of
the country
AT the rate we are now going" Nc
-. Call continued. ''it will not be long be-
| fore we regulate everything and every
body from Washington. You cannot
govern the whole universe from Il single
point and have shred Of liberty sur
Vive."
Russell. Tex. followed Mccall
Both Mccall and sibley, who spoke
against the bill Yesterday. Russell sail
| had set up straw men-and he proceeded
| to demolish them.
Announcing that he should first make
brief political review of the question
Russell stated that President I;coreva1r