The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-11
NO PASSES
 PERMITTED That the Sole Result So
 Far. RAILROAD LAWS UNTRIED Nothing Yet Known of What Their Effect Will Be. Transportation Companies VIII Not Att tack the Twenty-odd Measures in Court Till They are
 Tried.

The railroad laws, the results of ten years of agitation. the climax of the most persistent and exciting political controversies since the campaigns of Alliance movement, are yet unfeit. and the railroad officials cannot say what will be their effect They have been carefully going over the twenty-odd railroad acts and preparing for them to go into effect, but they cannot at this time say what their result will be.
 The first effect was the unexpected calling in of all passes. The adminis- tration pursued the holders of the passes with an energy that was noth- ing short of vindictiveness. The Leg isIature wanted to reserve the right to newspapers to make contracts to ex- change advertising for transportation. but the Governor would not hear to 1t. The so-ea1led anti-pass bill would, but for him, have gone into effect in the fall after the final adjournment of the Legislature, as 1t contained penal provision. A large portion of the Leg islature wanted the bill so amended as not to interfere with existing con tracts.
 The Hepburn bill, enacted by Con- gross. and which forbade the issuance of passes. provided that the act should not go Into effect until the first of the following January. The Legislature wanted to put in that provision in the Alabama law, which was a copy in most part of the Hepburn bill, but the spokesmen for the Governor killed this amendment.
 The railroad bills were so hurriedly pushed through both houses that even the railroad lawyers, study them as much as they might, and as long as they did every night, could not tell what they contained. It was soon dis covered that the administration had made still another attack on the hold CTS of passes in Senate bill 4S, to regu- late railroads in the State. On the signing of this bill, all passes were hurriedly called in. for 1t was seen that the admin nfsfrafi int1 anIn4ty te any man who rode on a pass had made Itself in other ways
 This was the first result If the anti railroad legislation. The first incident showed that the railroads were not making any open fight against the legislation and that their disposition was to submit to the law as far as they could possibly submit. It indicated that the railroads would obey every law passed and could be obeyed.
 In the meanwhile the effects of all the laws cannot be forecasted There arc enough of them to make a volume when printed. Railroad attorneys and railroad officials have been pouring over these laws and providing ways for them to be followed when they go into effect
 The question arises, will the rail- roads make a test of the laws?
 Not until they can be tried. That much is certain. The laws will be put on trial and an honest effort made to live up to them. Then If the roads find that compliance with them is im- possible, some legal steps will be taken and the laws which where so hurriedly passed through the Legislature wtll be given slower passage and a closer examination in the courts.
 At present. the sum total of the ef- fective legislation is that the newspa- per man was immediately deprived of his right. contract and the man who rode on a pass had to give 1t up.