The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-04
a ac;on9, Z, the board adiourned until

After the hearing adjourned Tuesday
AFTERNOON, Governor Hoch prepared and
gave out for publication the following
statement:
/ listened with great interest to the
eminent gentlemen representing the
various railroads of the state before
the board of railroad commissioners this
afternoon. Their right to advocate
the interests of their clients, as they
eloquently did, cannot be questioned
but as their remarks will doubtless
have wide publicity and as these re-
marks concern all the material inter-
ests of this state including those they
represent and as these remarks also
included in their range severe criticism
of myself, a word from me may not be
out of place.
Mr.. Lathrop, the general attorney of
the Santa Fe system opened the dis
cussfon on their side with a very elo-
quent plea for a square deal in which
he extolled Governor Hughes of New
York for vetoing a two-cent fare law
passed by the legislature of that state.
Now, Mr.. Lathrop well knows that
Governor Hughes in vetoing that bill
remanded the question to new tribu
nal created under a new law vigorously
advocated by him and which is one of
the most sweeping corporation laws
ever put upon the statute books of this
nation. And yet Mr.. Lathrop in the
same breath proceeded to deny to the
board of railroad commissioners of this
state the legal right to do that which
Governor Hughes assumed that this
board in his state had most ample pow
er to do. In other words, according to
Mr.. Lathrop. the people of New York
should get their relief if they need 1t
or deserve it. from a public board and
not from the Legislature but in this
state they should not get il from a
board but from a legislature not now
in session. That is to say Mr.. Lathrop
would deny the people of this state the
remedy which he extols Governor
Hughes for invoking in New York.
The senator from Atchison. Mr.. Bale
Waggener, also made few remarks.
Evidently these two distinguished ad-
yocates had not caucused. While Mr..
I.athrop would take this matter out of
the hands of the board, Mr.. Waggener
would take it out of the hands of the
legislature, He has contended all along
as every one knows, in the legislature
and out of it, that the direct regulation
of railroad traffic by the legislature is
fundamentally wrong. And so to fol-
low the argument of Mr.. Lathrop and
deny the power and right to the board
and follow Mr.. Waggener and deny it
to the legislature, the people have left
no legal redress at all. Mr.. Waggener
hardly added to the dignity of the dis
cussion, 1 think, in reading a comment
made by some newspaper reporter in
with the publication of my
letter to the railroad commissioners
placing the reporters construction upon
the meaning of my words. Now, my
letter explains itself and 1 assume that
the board is quite as competent as Mr..
Waggener or any newspaper reporter,
to interpret the meaning of that letter.
While Mr.. Waggener was reading this
reportorial comment and giving it all
the force of actual utterance from me,
why did he not also read from the same
paper an interview by himself in which
he was reported to have said that the
he representative Missouri
been seriously thinking for
some time of voluntarily putting in
two-cent rate in this state? This addi-
ton to his argument would have made
it complete.
Mr.. LOOMS argued with great ear
neStneSS that because the last legiSla- |
ture enacted a two-cent mileage book |
law to which the railroads agreed |,
that, therefore, the board of railroad |
commissioners should not go further |
than the legislature went. But Mr. |
Loomis well knows, I, think, that that |
compromise was agreed to by the leg
stature upon the assumption that the |
question whether or not a two-cent |
fare would be remunerative would be |
at once tested in the courts of neigh |
boring states and that the citizens of |
those states would not in the interim !
have the advantage that they are now |
over the citizens of this state
in the matter of passenger fare. He /
knows, 1 think, that if the legislature
had believed that a two-cent fare rate
would be at once put into operation in
hose states, a two-cent fare law would
instead of the mileage book.
All these gentlemen know that con-
1itiOns have changed and justly the
sentence which they quoted from my |
etter to the board of railroad COM
and criticised severely,
where 1 said 1.-The necessity for inVes-
igation has been supplanted by the |
for immediate action the |
'ailroads themselves having removed |
his necessity by putting in a two cent I
70 in, oi0h a
hus creating the necessity of which 1
spoke for a similar rate in this state. |
That is to say the discrimination
against the travelling public in this
state created the necessity for imme-
late action.
Criticism of the executive, it seems
o the mind of a layman like me, was,
n the language. of the lawyers, "in- |
irrelevant and immater-
all 1t does not seem to me to be !
sermain to the subject as to whether |
IN emergency exists and whether the |
ravelling public of this state should
De Disseminated against by the rail-
'oads and compelled to pay three
,ents per mile passenger fare while
he citizens of neighboring states are
,eing carried by these same COM
oanies for two cents per mile. How
ong, in the estimation of these gen.
lemen, would the people of this state
lave to submit to this discrimination
before an emergency calling for the i'm
Mediate action referred to in my let
er would exist? I have been assured
" the authorities of several neighbour
ng states that the litigation in those
tates on this subject might be pro-
onged for several years. Would these
gentlemen compel our people to SUBJ
nit to this discrimination during all
his time? And if SO, how would they
light this wrong to the people of this
tate If the courts by sustaining these
avs in these neighboring states
hould make it plain that 1t was a
wrong to our people? And what as
urance have we that we would not
lave to go through the same legal
processes in this state after the lapse
# all this time thus extending the