The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-12-18
Attempt to. Force Restoration
of Train Service.
EIGHT ARE TAKEN OFF
These on the Branch Lines
i'm Kansas.
AttOrneyGrattan Files aFOrmal
Complaint To-Day.

state board of railroad commission
this afternoon filed with the state
board a complaint against the Mis-
souri, Pacific railway, asking that the
board compel the company to restore
the passenger service on eight of Its
branch lines which it has recently
eliminated, alleging as its reason the
2-cent fare law.
The companies are given ten days
to answer, and the case will probably
come to hearing in about thirty days
Under instructions from the board,
Mr.. Grattan will. if he deems it ad-
visa BILE take steps to forfeit the char
ter of the Missouri Pacific railway in
the state of Kansas.
Whether / do this or not, said
Mr. Grattan this afternoon. depends
upon what the people living along the
Missouri Pacific who are chiefly in
terested want. 1 desire to check it
up to the people, and for that reason,
l have prepared a formal statement
setting forth the situation. and the
probable effects of such a proceeding.
1 hope the people will let the board
hear from them on this matter
Mr.. Grattan's Statement.
The following is Mr.. Grattan's
''The sole object of this communica-
tion is to call the attention of the peo-
pie to the recent action of the Missouri
Pacific Railway company in taking off
passenger trains on certain roads in
Kansas. And after the subject has had
wise and thoughtful consideration the
people ought to decide whether the
state will use It's power to declare any
charter and franchise forfeited, and
dissolve any railway corporation that
wilfully fails to live up to the object of
its creation. A corporation of the state
may be dissolved by the legislature, or
by the Judgment of court of COM
petent Jurisdiction The board of rail-
road commissioners has no power to
forfeit a charter or franchise or dis
solve a corporation. What officers OF
the state have power to institute such
a suit is not the matter for considera-
ton at this time.
TT is as much the duty of the state
to provide means of transportation OF
persons and property within the state
as it is to discharge any other power
or trust inherent in the state. When
ever a corporation fails in such pur-
pose ought the people to submit to
corporation using part, and thereby
keeping out the corporation that will
furnish reasonable passenger service
within the state? The constitution of
Kansas says:
Corporations may be created un-
der general laws; but all such laws
may be amended or repealed
There is an implied condition an
nexed to every grant of corporate
power, that they shall be subject to
forfeiture for willful mis-user or nom
user in regard to matters which go to
the essence of the contract between
the corporation and the state. The
reader will remember that the forms
of law through the courts must of
necessity be slow, when one of the |
parties will legally delay and obstruct |
the speed of the proceedings in the
courts by means both lawful (and |
possibly in the end by means unlaw-
full or at least by making claims in |
the first instance against the judgment |
of the court that are unfounded in |
fact and in law and in the end must |
faiL) Under the law when the board |
orders the restoration of passenger |
train service and the railroads do not |
obey the order, the courts must be ap !
pealed to to enforce such order; and |
no matter how faithful and how just |
the judgment of the court may be that |
it restore the passenger train service, !
1t is under the law in the power of |
railroad to carry the suit into an |
other court and thereby thwart the |
order of the board and the judgment |
of the court for months and possibly |
years thereafter. Will the people be
better satisfied for months and per-
haps more than year to have what
the Missouri Pacific now gives tan
Irregular. slow and uncertain freight
train service? Is half loaf better
than none? After a corporation is dis
solved it has its general property, but
not it's corporate franchise. Would
other corporations acquire by the
right of eminent domain the property
and operate passenger train service?
A corporation may abandon and sur
render its corporate power and fran
chise, but 1t cannot abandon a ma
terial part and operate the other part
not abandoned
THE courts of the state have dis
cretion in certain particulars as to
whether they will forfeit a charter or
dissolve a corporation. and in other
particulars the state has a legal right
TO demand a judgment of forfeiture
or dissolution as a matter of law. If
II be true that a railroad defies the
state, ought not the corporation be
dissolved? The people need to possess
themselves with the true facts and the
real situation as to the acts and atti-
tude of fhe Missouri Pacific railway,
ana deliberately decide what they as
the people of the state ought to do.
sldered in any sense of retaliation, nor
m any passionate way. but must be
considered wisely and thoughtfully. It
S my desire that the people of the
state snail understand the whole situ-
atlon, as well as it is the desire of
'or the people to understand the at
1tude of the Missouri Pacific against
he people of this state. Those COM
that have had passenger train
service for years and now have been ,
deprived of it need to INQUIRE WHY II
s that the Missouri Pacific at this time
s taking the attitude in the state of
KANSAS that 1t now has taken against ,
he rights of the people The atten-
ION of the people is called only to the
Pacific. and in no sense to
my other railroad company whatever.
&c. f. GRATTAN, | I
Attorney for the Board of Railroad ,
Commissioners" Ii