The Minneapolis journal., 1906-05-18
THREE WORDS MAY
!. NULLIFY RATE BILL
Continued From First Page.

minutes It was his first expression of
opinion regarding this phrase OF legls-
lation. He said that the words ''in its
Judgment had crept into his bill by
mistake They had been incorporated
by his secretary after a conference
with the secretary of the interstate
commerce commission, and Mr.. Knox
who had given his carefully prepared
notes on his bill to his secretary to be
put together in Legislative form, did
hot know they were in the bill until he
saw them there in printed form.
I After this explanation, Mr.. Knox
went on to say that in his Judgment the
question as to whether congress, with
out using these words, had any right
to delegate it's legislative discretion to
a commission, was very close one. he
couldn It pretend to say how the courts
would hold regarding it. He was sure,
however that if the words in question
were permitted to remain in the rate bill,
that the bill, after enactment, would
be thrown out of court because uncon-
in the bill served no useful purpose
whatever, even from the viewpoint of
advocacy of the legislation.
Invites Disaster.
He said it would be flying into the
face of very recent decision of the
supreme court, and inviting sure disas-
ter to write these words into the rate
bill. So far as the question of court
review was concerned Mr.. Knox said
that the words did not affect that in the
? least degree. AS to this he felt very
confident
Mr.. Bailey followed Mr.. Knox in
speech of much force, in which he
agreed with the arguments Of that gen
: tleman. The words either meant abso
lutely nothing, or they were fatal to
the bill. In his own amendment to the
bill, which had been voted down, he
omitted these words
: In that amendment he was certain
that the constitutional difficulty had
been avoided, if indeed it was possible
to avoid it at all. But the bill as at
present framed walked right into dan
ger and invited an adverse decision
from the court of last resort. He called
! attention to the fact that the supreme
court has never yet said that congress
has the power to fix railroad rates. AS
FOR himself, he had long thought that
various decisions of that court, when
taken together, strongly intimated that
congress had such power, and he had
taken position accordingly, when the
court, in the Northern Securities case
said expressly that no word from the
court on that important question had
yet been spoken.
Foraker Says Unconstitutional,
;: Mr.. Foraker argued that the retention
of the words in the bill had the effect Of
writing across the bill face this act
words out he thought the bill
would still not be able to stand
the test of the courts, but
the courts would then have to go
into the act itself in order to reach a
decision. But with the words retained,
all the supreme court would do would be
to read those words and without further
ado throw the law aside as null and
void.
Mr.. Foraker repeated and extended
the argument Of Mr.. Bailey and Mr.
zzKnonx that the fling of rates involved
"a legislative discretion, which congress
could not delegate to commission,
tain the words "In it's judgment, -
which, while intended by the friends of
the bill as a check to court review,
, would in fact have quite another effect
The impression created by this debate
was genuinely profound, and brought
the senate face to face with what is per-
, shaps the most important issue thus far
rate question.
! One of the administration senators
said to me after the close of the ses-
! sion, that the words were intended to
! somewhat enlarge the discretion which
the commission must necessarily exer-
else in the making of rates. He ad-
smitted that the points raised in the de-
bate were important, but said that if it
would be lawful to vest the commission
with discretion Of any sort, 1t would be
equally lawful to extend or to narrow
that discretion.
J." Foraker Gets Active.
:. The words in question would tend tc
extend that discretion and the same
claimed by Mr.. Allison. It is believed
here that if the words are retained in
: the act as finally passed there will be 6
!, speedy appeal to the supreme court by
way Of test case, for the purpose Of
determining just what the country has
secured in the legislation. -
!. Senator Foraker had considerable
matter put into the record yesterday
going to show that the prison penal
! rate bill on the recommendation of va
sls rious members Of the interstate com
s. merce commission, who in their testi
s mony before the senate committee, ha
old act had served as a hindrance rathe
than a help to convictions.
=: Chairman Knapp of the commission
argued earnestly for their repeal, as di
Commissioner Fifer. The committe
had simply acted on this recommends
tion and not, as had been falsel
charged, Of it's own motion, with a vie7
to serving the purposes of the railways
Under the old prison provision, ther
had been only one conviction, and tha
Of a poor subordinate officer. ma
not only technically guilty, since b
z was merely obeying orders.
McCumber Defends. '
In this connection. Mr. Bailey mad
an earnest but ineffective plea in fave
Of not applying the rebate provision
saying the government would effectua
y " close the way to convictions. Th
railways, being penalized. of cours
would not divulge anything, and tn
shippers, being penalized in the sam
=: