The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-30
AILROADS
 FILE PETITION Ask That Injunction Be
 Modified. PARTING SHOT FIRED AT STATE Protest Against Alleged ll-Treat-
 ment Received. Roads Declare That They Were Clubbed Into Becoming a Party to The Agreement Reached at Raleigh.
PARTING SHOT FIRED AT STATE

Asheville. N. C.. July 2s-A parting
 shot at the state authorities in the railroad controversy was fired through and the Atlantic Couast Line filed be- fore Judge Pritchard today asking that his interlocutory injunction be modified in acordance with the peace" agreement reached Saturday at Raleigh between Gov. Glenn and the railroads. Both of the roads filed petitions similar in tenor which explained a conference here today between attOr- neys representing the two roads. The petition of the Southern Hallway recites the entire history of the rail- road cases and includes a protest against what the roads regard as their
 ill treatment. this protest and recital of facts being designed for perusal of the supreme court of the Uited States. as well as for the public. The railroads declare in effect that they were clubbed into becoming a. par to the agreement effected at Raleigh. that the public mind has been inflamed ty, to the agreement effected at Raleigh of politician and the agreement was only assented to under duress because of threats of an extra session of the Legislature for the purpose of adopting leEislstion hostile to the railroads. The Southern Railway Company says the petitioner was confronted with a question as to whether its proper sense of duty to the peace and good order of the State, a proper considera- tion of its obligations to perform its duties as common carrier in the State and interstate business and the sub- 5ecting of its employees to arrests and Imprisonment would justify it in longer n Qiminc ifs cnnStifufinnaI oh fn protection of the interlouctory order requiring 1t to continue until the hear ing of the existing rate of charges was determined. or whether 1t was not best to cease the unequal conflict with the united powers of the State. The Southern Railroad does not lose sight continues the petitioner, of the moment ous nature of the claim asserted by the State If the claim of the State can be sustained. it Is pointed out, 1t means that through the agency of it's criminal laws a State cah take the use of property without compensation, for the time being pending the enactment Of 3 statute by its general assembly and the final deterimnation of its constitu- tionaljty. If this claim of the State be upheld. the petitioner maintains . State could fix the rate at one per cent and if the company were compelled
  ing the fourteenth amnedment forbids it, the State has the powe rto take dur. ing the period mentioned the property of a company without compensation With reference to the coercion and in. timidation employed to drive the rail roads by courts. as to the extent men toned, the petition calls attention to the activity of Governor Glenn against the road.
 In fact the petition says. the Gov ernor directed the coercive measures The request to make changes 'ndi- cated in the petition was granted by Judge Pritchard. who, in making the revised order said:
 '"The applications now made to modi- fy the injunctions heretofore granted in these causes present a condition of affairs unprecedented in the judicial annals of this country.
 After a full and complete hearing of the matters raised by the pleadings in these cases, injunctions pending a hearing of the questions involved in the original suits were granted. The court in granting such injunctions followed the course pursued by the Supreme Court of the United States in the cases of Smith vs. Ames; Reagan vs. Farmers Loan and Trust Company Cotting vs. Kansas Stock Yards Com pany, and Prout vs. Starr, and by the