The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-02
OUR GOVERNOR AND ANOTHER
Two GubernatoriaI Deliverances Are
 Roasted.

Two GubernatoriaI Deliverances Are
 Roasted.
 New York Sun.
 Nasty and muddle-headed public speaking is very much the order of the day, and many of our governors or all in being in the fashion. Two bril- liant specimens of gubernatorial talk a la mode are furnished by the cotnci- dent utteranceS upon railroad legisia- tion of governors as geographically asunder as Johnson, of Minnesota, and Conner, of Alabama.
 Tn announcing that he expects soon to issue a call for an extra session or the Alabama Legislature Ito determine who controls this State, the people or the railroads Governor Conner ex- presses great astonishment that the railroads are not willing to give to the people of Alabama without Q fierce contest and stubborn opposition part of what they have conceded to other States. For instance. says this sapient passenger rates have been established by law and the railroads have acquiesc- ed" A little reflection would have disclosed to Governor Conner that there was no sufficient reason for the as- tonishment which he expressed. It is not true, to begin with, that the rau- roads have acQuiesced in two-cent fare laws in many States. In most. if not all. proceedings have been instituted by them to test the validity of the enact ments, and the acqutescence of which Governor Conner speaks consists In compliance with the laws In accordance with court rulings already obtained or pending final decision upon the laws. To date the attitude of the railroads towards the Alabama rate law is pre- cisely what the attitude of the rail- roads in other States has been toward the rate laws In those States. Neither in Alabame nor elsewhere is there any question of the railroads granting or withholding anything. As good citi- zens they have asked the courts to tell them what their rights are before the law. Taking the case, though, as Governor Conner chooses to put 1t, there are very excellent reasons why the railroads in Alabama might not be willing to lower rates toward the level which the railroads in a few States night be disposed to concede. IT Governor Conner were not given over to speaking without reflection 1t might appear even to him that the conditions and quantity and kind of railroad traf- fic in Alabama make it very desirable that higher rates should be. obtained for handling it than might be profit able in some other States.
 Governor Johnson also speaks with out reflecting when he takes issue with the Federal Circuit court for question ing the motives" of the Minnesota Legislature in the enactment or rall- road rate laws" when the court grant ed an injunction last Friday against tho new commodity rate law. Cover nor Johnson waXes very eloquent about the coordinate powers of the Legisla- ture and judiciary. '"The legislative arm of the government" he says, ''Is as supreme in all it's functions as the i judicial can be In any of Its functions, He seems, however. to be wholly oblivi- ous of the fact that there Is just as much theoretical cooperation of power between the executive and judiciary and between the executive and the | legislative branches of government as | between the legislative and the | judiciary, and proceeds to do precisely | that which he criticises the Federal Circuit court for doing. If the court had no business to question the mo- lives of the Legislature" It is quite as | true that Governor Johnson has no | business to tell the courts that they would more surely win the respect of State officers and citizens by recogniz- ing the right that belongs to the CO., ordinate branch of the government"
 If the court had no business to ques- | tion the motives of the Legislature neither has Governor Johnson any right to go into those motives for the purpose of defending them and say