The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-09-24

Ito be his duty 10 call an extra
session OF the Legislature to take sucH
steps as might be necessary to uph"ta
the laws OF the Commonwealth. There
upon the fighting railroads agreed 70
nut the two cent rate IN operation n
virginia on a given date. Nlrg!nia
did more TO "terrify capital from
afar" than did North Carolina. Tor
its reduction Is greater. IL the passage
Of the rate law Viii drive away cap
itaI. for in bis state the railroads
can charge one fourth OF a cent more
Governor Glenn did iead IN the pa
triotic action taken by the Governors
OF both these States, but Governor
Swanson was not lacking In deterInlh-
alton to enforce the laws Of Virginia
Some Virginia papers say Virginia
was more "dignihed" in asserting
its rights, and more deliberate North
Carolina proceeded strictly along 9
and constitutional lines and It's chleI
executive moved with a rapid IRE
gun while V~irginia's chief executive
was getting ready for action IheS
stand upon the same principle, town..
Has a State the right 10 regulate lntr@-
state traffic and fix rates TO pc
charged for transportation? And
must the laws Of the State be obeyed
by the corporations pending appeal!
These are the simple questions that
must be decided. If the supreme
Court, upon a case properly made up
that gets at the facts and the books
as they are, decides that 2 IA cents
is "confiscatory' in North Carolina
this state will fix the rate on eacn
aeparate road at a rate that is fair
alike to the railroads and the people
If, by excluding the examination and
inspection Of the books necessary ana
keeping back scandalous and cor
rupt expenditures, the Supreme Court
is denied the necessary facts to reach
a fair conclusion, the State will find
a way to get at all the facts and keep
up the fight until it fixes a fair rate
that will stick. We presume the
State Of Virginia Will do likewise, even
if in so doing the Times-Dispatch
should call it '-narroWness" and de-
clare that it's legislators and other Of
fcials were "swayed by the rantins OF
demagogues." The men in Virginia
who tried to defeat Jefferson's sep
aration of church and State and his
law repeating the act of primogen1-
ture embraced some men of excellent
private character. They decried these
two propositions as those Of a
! demagogue and an infdel, a man
consumed with an ambition to appeal
A. La~ Prf Tof-
ferson is remembered while the
men who tried to stay liberty
and justice by calling him a "dema-
gogue' are forgotten. In this CEN
fury, railroad corruption of politics
and its defiant policy expressed in the
words Of its richest president "the
people b. damned and by a lesser Of
fetal the devil care what the State
does-the Fedora courts haven't gone
anywhere, but are doing business at
the same stand"-this spirit Of threat
ening justice and the proper rights of
the State is as great a as pri-
m~ogeniture and religious persecution
were in Jefferesons' day. In North
Carolina, the attempt at poll
teal domination is intolerable and
the resolve by the public SER
vice corporations to defy proper
State regulation is so anarchistic tina
if the people longer submitted they
would be unworthy Of citizenship.
The people of North Carolina are so
tired of the attempts to control gov
eminent by railroads that at the last
State Democratic Convention this de-
nunciation was inserted in the plat
form:
THE interference by public service
corporations in political matters
should be called SO sharply to the at
tention Of the people that it will be
odious, and the efficiency of such cor
porations as political agencies should
thus be destroyed That is the de-
claration of the Democratic State
Convention and voices the sentiment Of
the party in this State.
North Carolina, so far from desiring
to injure railroads, has been the most
conservative of States. If Virginia
had suffered by Determinations against
it's manufacturing and business inter-
ests as North Carolina, every indie
pendent man and every independent
newspaper would have made the
country ring with cries for relief.
North Carolina has for years begged
and entreated the railroads to give
North Carolina as good Interstate
freight rates as it gives Virginia 1t
has been slow even to go into the
courts, hoping by conferences n pro-
per bringing of the matter before the
railroad officials 70 secure fair treat
ment. 1t was only when the Cotton
! manufacturers Association, the Mer-
chants Association, the flour manu-
facturers and others saw that they
were being taxed so as to give their
| Virginia competitors unfair advantage
| over them that the Legislature and
the Governor were asked 10 compel
the just treatment the railroads de-
MED this State. Here are a few samples
| of the sort of discrimination practised
| against North Carolina cities and in
favor Of Virginia cities:
Flour from Cincinnati and Louis