The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-23
HE ACCOMMODATES
CONGRESSMAN MpCALL DEGREES
 s TENDENCY OF TIMES
CrIticlses Attacks on Corporations and Says Railroads Have Saved Many
 of States from Being

Says Railroads Have Saved Many
 of States from Being
 Waste Places.
 Marshfield, Mass, Aug. 22-Con- gressman Samuel W. Mccall addressed a large crowd at the Marshfield fair grounds today, saying, in part.
 ''one of the United States Judges has just imposed a fine of such propor- tions that it allies itself with the trib- ute which a victorious nation imposes upon a vanQuished one, a fine that probably is not greatly exceeded by the aggregate of all other fines i'm posed by our Federal courts since the establishment of the Government. The offense was the receiving of a dis eliminating rate from a railroad com pany. Whether the fine was right or wrong, or whether an ordinary shipper would have been even subjected to prosecution upon the exact facts of this case, 1 shall not argue.
 "As MT. Bonaparte is not engaged in sinking the constitution this year, but announces that he is after game, he might be willing to take whatever comes. But I allude to, the matter simply for the purpose of calling your attention to our railroad legislation.
 Three years aga Congress was ask ed to confer upon an executive de- partment the power to fix railroad rates. At that time the remedy for railroad discrimination reposed upon the, statute books the very act. gainst rebates and discrimination under which the $30, ,000,0 GOO fine has been im- posed, a statute so sweeping that 1t not merely prohibits beyond question. not meGely prohibits beyond question the giving or accepting of discrim- inatory rate, but which the law off, fees of the Government now contend subjects a shipper to a heavy penalty even where he accepts a rate in abso- lute good faith and with no reason to believe he is getting an illegal rate.
 The question suggests itself why were old laws enforced rather than new ones demanded. The practice in Government of expending the maxi mum amount of noise and disturbance to secure the minimum of good may be diverting, but it is costly. It Obliter- ated a great foreign trade in packed peats in order to get legislation which every packer wanted. As to the im- provements in meat they are mainly seen in the removal of the defects ex- ising in the imaginations of some so- ciologists and in the consequent silence of those gentlemen. And then, too, we have with us the noble army of well-paid Federal inspectors.
 This procedure has been followed in securing the railroad legislation. do not refer to the Elkins statute. which is doing business today. but I refer to this rate bill. I believe that the Populistic agitation started far more than the legislation which re- suited has, financially and industrially. injured the country. Railroad build ing has been effectively stopped. If a similar public sentiment has been aroused six years ago, many of our great commonwealths would today be unsettled areas still under the domain of the buffalo and the wolf.
 Prophets of disaster were not want ing two years ago, of which I canssss I was one, who predicted some of the evil results that are now beginning to appear. We are pretty near the edge of financial setback. Economically an industrial crisis at this time would be senseless and wanton; but we should already have had one if our prosperity had not been we'll nigh in vulnerable. There .is- a likelihood. too. that the step that has been-t taken will some day lead to the ownership of railroads by the Government on the principle that he who fixes the price of a commodity will ultimately own 1t.