The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-07
RIGHTS NEITHER THE CONGRESS NOR THE PRESIDENT GAN
 AFFECT.

It is announced President Roosevelt is willing to assent to qualified re- view by the courts of rates to be inn posed by Congress upon carrying com- panies His consent to any review power whatever is by some treated as signifi- cant. The right to go to law is really constitutional not Rooseveltian. MT. Roosevelt's recognition of that right is creditable, in a sense, to him, but 1t is not essential to litigants or to any one else. The right IS both natural and constitutional Being natural, 1t falls under the common law rights of free men Being constitutional, it depends neither upon the President nor upon the Congress- Citizenship, with all courtesy, can answer MT. Roosevelt; Sir, we thank you for nothing The right was ours, with or without your consent"
 It is necessary to state matters thus curtly. Officials from the highest to the lowest can confer, can forbid and can limit none of the natural, ina lienable and constitutional rights of American persons" whether human or incorporate. Whether there Is wrong there is a remedy. Wherever there is belief that wrong exists, there is 8 right to submit that belief to judicial consideration in complaint or d law suit. We know that courts of review only deal with appellate-cases. But any man or interest can find a trial court in which he can make any one of whom he complains a defendant,
 Joinder of issue makes a case, Trial of a case leads to a decision. The fact of decision makes matter for appeal. Appeals to the court of last resort on question of liberty are unconditional. Appeals to those courts on questions of property, involving no constitutional issue whatever, can be limited as to the value of property that can be held to justify an appeal That is because the amount involved shoua be such as to justify the attention of appellate tribunals The appealable amount in our state courts is, we believe, $500 or over That suffices for substantial jus tice, when no constitutional question or no question of personhk liberty is in- volved. Liberty and constitutional rights are not measurable in money and cannot be restricted from appeal, where the issue involved has not al- ready been concluslvely adjudicated.
 We are not concerned with the offer of the president In the matter under consideration. It may have the effect of reducing friction among those who are now trying "to agree on bill" Reduction of friction Is desirable, but no agreement can do away with what we may call the appellate rights of citizens or of the other class of persons called corporations. Corporations are persons. The law calls them artificial persons. The Supreme Court of the | United States, in the Missouri traffic case, declared them, under the Four teenth Amendment, to be legal persons as completely entitled, under that amendment, to property rights and constitutional projections as are persns naturally begotten.
 Congress cannot equip an artificial person, the Interstate Commerce Com mission, for instance, with power to deny legal and constitutional rights tc any other artificial person or corpora tion, or for the matter of that, to any human person whatever. The House of Representatives said that Congress could The Senate has said that Con. gress cannot. The House is but one legislative half of Congress, the Senate being the other. The term of the House will soon end. Its successor will be chosen, in November It's members are officially "voting for reelection now.
 It would be embarrassing, but il would not be embarrassing but il would not be finally serious, should both legal halves of the Congress should the Congress as whole unanimously enact that the Interstate 1 Commerce. Commission could abridgt or deny the rights of other persons corporate or human, under the Con. stitution. The Judiciary as distinctly a part of the Government as Congress or the President would not allow that ito be done. He who walks on the foundations walks safely. The Senate has been walking upon the foundations
 and, we hope, will continue to do so The President is willing that that shal be done-to a degree. The concession