The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-14
Be FAIR he SAYS.
Attorney Grattan Of Railroad
Board Makes a Speech.
No Good From Clash of People
and Railroads.
JUSTICE FOR ALL.
One Should Not Charge Too
Much
Neither the Other Expect Rates
That Are Too Low.

G. F. Grattan, attorney for the state
board of railroad commissioners, ad-
dressed the Cosmopolitan club of the
First Christian church last night on
The Regulation of Commerce and
Transportation" This is the first time
the attorney for the board has made
any public address on any subject since
taking his office.
S. j. Hodgins, register of deeds of
Shawnee county, presided at the meet
ing last night.
Mr.. Grattan first discussed freight
classif1cations, groups, and basing
points, and the gradual development
through years of time, of the present
complicated freight rate situation. He
continued in part as follows:
The welfare of the state and nation
ought to be the spirit of all laws. The
general public ought to be so well in
formed upon the subject of commerce
that the demagogue could not spring
up out of the ranks of the people nor
out of the ranks of the carrier. Does
anyone know of a demagogue, whether
he serves the people or serves the car
r1er, that ever rises higher than his own
selfish interest? It is not for the pub
lie welfare that there be a clash from
time to time between the public and
the carrier. No good can come from
charges of dishonesty and counter
people and the carrier must each learn
the worth and the rights of the other,
and know how fully dependent each Is
upon the other for their continued ex-
istence, growth and development. No
matter how great the crops nor how
enormous the herds of livestock If they
cannot reach the distant markets, and
the carrier receive and the shipper pay
a fair and just rate. The disposition
of the carrier to have too much or of
h CHI 70 q
of strife between the carrier and the
shipper. There is ever just balance
between the carrier and the shipper that
must be found and be kept. The car.
rier will name rate too great for the
shipper, and the shipper will name
rate too small for the carrier. Here
the state and nation enter and compel
each to be just to the other. The closer
the government stands to their ever re-
curing differences and speedily does
Justice to both the shipper and the car
rier is the welfare of the public and
carrier sustained and advanced and
commerce maintained untrammeled.
The intelligent public cannot exalt COM
merce too highly. Commerce is the life
of all business and the balance Aor gov
ernor of all society. 1t concerns all
from the palace to the hut. The suspen-
sion of commerce is stagnation, 1ndol-
enee and discomfort, and in time would
be the end of government.
"a railroad is no more commerce than
a wagon is commerce. They are but the
instruments of commerce chosen by the
nation and the state to promote the
welfare of the people. These 1nstru-
ments of commerce grew up unreStra1n-
ed and uncontrolled, and made rules
that oppressed the shipper until the ma
ton and states in recent years asserted
their own power over commerce. Com
merce must be free and untrammeieo'
it must be guarded from assaults from
within and from without. Navigation
requires the constant removal OF OBJ
structions and the deepening of chan
nels and the establishment of levies and
wharfs, and so must commerce ever be
free from impediments, whether these
to commerce arise within
the people or arise from among the car
riers. The weak and vacillating officer,
whether of the people or OF the carrier,
that seeks to favor the people or to ia
-vor the carrier is a public enemy Of
commerce. Commerce needs no favors-
she is Justice herself-and does not al
ways seek her own, lest she harm the
instruments of commerce she ever must
employ. Commerce wishes that her rule
of Justice to both carrier and shipper
shall not be suspended nor turned aside
by either the people or the carrier. The
realm of commerce and transportation
is over land and sea, and her rule Is
capital with intelligence and integrity
to traverse and possess and multiply In
her whole realm.
.sIs it not the part of wisdom and
prudence for both the carrier and the
state to serve each other loyalty and
faithfully. The more rugged honesty
put into and kept in the management
and operation of the railroads the bet
ter for them and the people. Regula-
ton and control must be honest and
faithful both to carrier and shipper. The
railway officer who objects to honest
control and regulation is as objection
able as is the ignorant man who in
blind zeal strikes in the dark. Honesty
and faithfulness on the part of the rail-
road and on the part of the state Is
ever needed. Does not prudence suggest
that if the railroads fairly and faith
fully serve the public without discrimi-
nation and without favor they are serv-
ing commerce in the highest degree. 1t
seems to me that the confidence and
trust that must ever exist between the
people and the instruments of COM
merce can only come by each Loyalty
and faithfully discharging their duty
to the other. The better that the rail-
roads understand the people and the
better that the people understand the
railroads the greater will be the mutual
advantage of both. For the railroad to
saw that the people cannot do without
them or for the people to say that they
can do without the railroad is as fool
ish a q for the hand to be at strife with
the foot as to which is the greater. AS
Of the law and knowledge and appreci-
alton of each ones Importance and re-
lations to government is better under
stood the railroads as instruments OF
commerce will stand in the future as
greater civilizers than they have been
In the past
in NnhFQ2EA