The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-06-04
Bale Waggener Attacks Kansas
Railroad Commission.
Questions Right of Legislature
to Create 1t.
ASKS FOR TIME
Case Continued Till the July
Term.
COnstitutiOnaIity of Board Will
Then Be Argued.

More time in which to consider the
issues raised in the brief of Bale P.
Waggener on the Madison branch case
was asked for by the state Monday
when that case came on for hearing be-
fore the supreme court.
Mr.. Waggener, on behalf of the Mis-
souri, Pacific railway. filed a 40. page
brief, not only discussing the direct
issues of the controversy, but raising
the entire question of the right of the
legislature to create the state board of
railroad commissioners. 1t was this
point which the state wants more time
to meet.
The court allowed the request
that the case be substituted on
the July docket for the Hargrave case
from Rush county, and the attorneys
for the railroad company did not object
to the continuance.
Mr.. Waggener said in speaking of the
case: The recent decision. of the SUI
preme court of the United States, which
it has been claimed allowed the boards
of railroad commissioners almost I'M
limited powers over railroad corpora
tions, does not apply to the present sit
uation in the least. 1t does not even
squint at this case 1t may be that the
validity of the state board of railroad
commissioners will not be decided in the
may simply sustain the findings of the
special master, which would give us the
decision. But this same question as to
the validity of the board is going to
come up again, and it will have to be
decided
The issue in the Madison Branch case
is simply whether the board of railroad
commissioners can compel the Missouri
Pacific to run a daily passenger train
from Madison to Mound City and inter-
NH, cSoI efa
F. Carver. found that the revenues of
the Missouri Pacific, of which the Madi-
son branch is a part, were sufficient to
justify the operation of the train, but
held that as the train would have to be
operated to some junction point in Mis-
souri, to make it feasible, it was an
interstate proposition, and beyond the
jurisdiction of the state board of rail-
road commissioners or the state courts.
The state brought mandamuS proceed |
ings to compel the Missouri Pacific TO
obey the order of the board
In speaking of the powers given to the !
state board of railroad commissioners, |
Bale Waggener says in his brief:
THE ingenuity of man can scarcely i
of any function and power of
a railroad company which has not been
taken away, and vested in the board of |
commissioners. If such laws
are valid, we need not worry about the |
problem of government ownership OF |
railroads. If the state of Kansas own |
ed every mile of railroad in the state, by /
title, it could not delegate |
to or vest in its own managers greater |
power than it has attempted to vest in /
the board of railroad commissioners I'M |
der the laws referred to- Ordinarily, |
under our theory of government, owner
ship of property carries with it the right /
of dominion over the same, and, within !
in Kansas, so far as railroad
are concerned. These !
companies have expended in this
state many millions of dollars in |
permanent Improvements, under the be-
lief that they could exercise some su-
pervision Of and control over their pro-
perty and continue to aid and assist J
in the development of the wonderful re-
sources of this great state. Constitu-
tionaI guarantees have been swept |
away as idle vagaries. and. in obedi-
snce to the clamor of blatant dema- |
gogues. political highwaymen and Of
fice-seeking cormorants, these m1lllons
0f dollars have been taken from the |
control of the owners, and placed under
The exclusive management of a politi- |
cal agency. with powers so great as to
startle and stagger the financial mar
xetS of the world. If the law of this
state is constitutional in all of it's pro-
visions. a railroad company can make
no rule fixing even the duties of
switchman or section hand which may
not be cancelled and annulled by the
board of railroad commissioners. 1t
AN make no regulation as to the speed
Of it's trains which is not subject to the I
pleasure. whim or caprice of the
IF railroad commissioners has the pow
er to require the destruction of every
station house or depot, and the con-
;truction of others more commodious.
It may require additions to the rolling
stock of a company which has not
iollar in it's treasury with which to pay
he bill