West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1906-03-01
OUR washington LETTER.
The Supreme Court Takes a Hand
In Railroad legislation.
CONGRESS NOW ALSO INTERESTED.
The Interstate Commerce Commits
sion About as Harmless as o
Mothers Spanking.
Regular Correspondent OF The Argus.

Regular Correspondent OF The Argus.
| WASHINGTON, Feb. a6, 1900. -
| The spectacle of the Supreme
Court taking hand in railroad leg.
islauon before Il was asked has
been the sensation of the week in
the capital. What the decision OF
the court in the Chesapeake and
Ohioan case will ultimately be twist.
ed to mean is problem. What
1t means on the face of il is very
plain, namely that the railroads
shall treat all shippers alike which
they cannot or will not do SO long
as they own the comodities they
haul. But whether this decision,
which startling as it is only empha-
sized the common law, will have
any practical effect is serious
question. Just now Congress APP
pears to be very deeply interested
in thorough investigation of the
coal and oil carry roads. The In.
terstate Commerce Committee of
the House is preparing resolution
to req uest the President to instruct
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion to make a searching inquiry
along these lines. But if the way
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion replied to the Gillispie reso
luton is any criternion, the infor-
nation obtained will not be over
whelming. Possibly the President
will inject little ginger into the re.
quest that will wake up the Com.
mission and produce a real investi.
CATION. He is fully capable of it,
and the Commission will stand a
whole lot of waking up. Such an
investigation would be of great in
terest to the country. 1, would
give the railroads chance TO show
whether or not they had been ma.
ligned IN the recent charges made
against them by almost every maya
zine and newspaper, to the effect
that they were the allies and IN
many cases the stock owned instru
ments of the great industrial mo-
nopolies that have been fattening
on the public for years past. 1t
would also tend to prove TO Con-
gress just how pressing is the need
FOR real rate regulation and might
in the end produce better rate bill
than the one now contemplated and
amended Hepburn measure. The
Interstate Commerce Commission
now has the chance of existance to
do a great piece work and to show
conclusively whether the railroads
have been the oppressors or the op.
pressed and IL so who has done the
expressing. II the railroads are in
nocent of wrong doing, they ought
naturally TO welcome this chance
for vindication. But the chances
are that they will quietly let the op-
portunity slip. An indication OF
the attitude OF the Commission may
be gained from the fact that Char
man Knapp was asked by CORE
spondent the day after the courts
decision In the &. & o. case what
he thought Of it and what effect il
would have on the decisions Of the
Commission But he merely re
piled that he had not yet read the
decision and in the absence OF any
knowledge could not discuss l..
The reply was OF course simply a
timorous evasion, for he had read
three columns OF tie text OF the
decision in the papers that morning.
But It showed very we'll the attitude
Of the Commission toward anything
that might appear to commit them
to any one policy for more than ff-
teen minutes at time.
The good old modus vivendi has
again come 10 the front and avert
ed for the space of almost a year
and half the threatened tariff war
with Germany. The State Depart.
ment has patched up a truce with
Germany in virtue Of which Ger
man goods are 10 be examined aud
appraised az the port of entry, and
this while il is very valuable con.
cession, is really nothing more than
an agreement on our part to play
the tariff game strictly on the square
and TO let the Germ N exporter
know the worst before he ships his
goods instead Of afterward. The
result will be that there will be more
trade between this country aud Ger
many than ever before and possibly
the modus may crystalize into a
treaty before the year and a half is
out.