The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-23

entrusted with the admlulsITaVlon Oh d
great public work, he would have been
3 benefactor TO his country and his
age: as a sovereign he has proved
greedy despot.
Brooks Adams OF Boston, counsel for
the complainants in the Spokane rate
case against the Hill and Hartman
lines. charging rate discrimination, EN-
phasizes the foregoing words in closing
his brief, submitted to the Interstate
Commerce Commission, for final argu-
ment at Washington, y. c., June 20.
The suit, the first instituted under
the law enacted by the last Congress
and which applies to every inland city
in the United States under the pres
ent system of rste-making, is IN the
name of the city of Spokane, the SPo-
kane Chamber of Commerce, the Spo-
kane Jobbers' Association and the coun-
ty of Spokane, petitioners and com
plainants, against the Northern Pacific,
the Great Western, the Union Pacific,
the Oregon Railroad & Navigation and
the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway
Companies.
Other defendants by order of the
commission are. The Canadian Pacific,
Chicago, Burlington G. Quincy, Chicago
s. Northwestern, Lake Shore & Michi-
gan Southern. New York Central Hud-
son River Pittshurg, Fort Wayne &
Chicago, Pennsylvania, New York, New
Haven { Hartford and the Boston &
Maine Railway Companies. The Pa
cifc Coast Jobbers & Manufacturers
Association, Portland Chamber of Com
merce, Merchants Protective Associa
ton of Seattle and the Tacoma Traffic
Association are intervenors.
What Specific Charge Is.
The specific charge is that upon prac-
tically all the interstate and transcon-
tlDental traffic transported from points
east of the State OF Washington TO the
city Of Spokane the rates are equal
TO those made TO Seattle. Tacoma and
Portland, with difference in haulage
of from $50 TO SOS miles added, plus
an arbitrary rate back to Spokane. This
means, according to figures from the
railway companies published tariffs,
that the people Of Spokane are forced
TO pay about $4,000, 600 year more for
their freight transportation than could
be charged if the rates were equahzed
with those Of the coast terminals.
Mr.. Adams contends that when, In
1906, Congress empowered the commits
sion TO fix reasonable railway rates,
thereby reversing the construction
which the Supreme Court Of the United
States had given 10 the statute of
1857, regulating commerce, 1t was gen
orally conceded that the United States
had entered upon new era, adding:
"The act of 1906 should be con
strued in the light of the force that
made it, and TO comprehend the era
we have entered we must seek the
causes which produced the movement
of which this act is the effect Reduced
10 its last analysis, I apprehend that
the struggle whose first phase termi-
uated with the enactment, approved
June %, 1906. touches the possession
of the national sovereignty. for | take
it 70 be demoustrable that he who
controls nation S highways is that
nation S sovereign. | suppose 1T wtll
hardly he disputed that prior TO 1906
capacity. aid moi control their rail
WAYS, 3ud that the control of these
highways rested with somewhat mar
VOW class ot capitalists -
Following lengthy exposition that
sovereignty is Identical with the con-
troll of the national highways. Mr.,
Adams shows that by an almost un-
broken line of decisions by the fore
most lurists of America. beginning with
that of Judge Shaw In lS42 in the case
Of the inhabitants of Worcester against
the Western railroad. has established
that the railway corporation in the
United States is an agent employed by
the government TO construct and opcr-
ate public work in the nature Of
railway.
Beginning with the entrance of the
Great Northern into the Northwest IN
1892, when Mr.. Hill, president of the
company, promised the people of Spo-
kane that if they would donate right
of-wsy designated By him, his com
papy would in turn give freight rates
equal 10 or better than those 10 Puget
Sound, Mr.. Adams goes into the pur-
chase of the Northern Pacific and the
Burlington systems. which, he declares,
OF conspiracies 10 monopolize the trans
portation system of the Northwest,
which has since riveted the attention
Of the entire United States. He then
shows that beginning with an original
issue Of S20.000.00o capital stock in
1890, this has been increased until
at the present time there is $50, 900 900
authorized capital stock, of which
Sl49. SAG, ,05o is issued. OF the total,
s4s,50o.0o0 is in property or treasury
and $101. 100000 in other stocks. The
brief adds:
The Great Northern has, through
stock privileges. actually divided ap.
proximately 90 per cent annually dur
ing the last twelve years, and there
fore it follows not only that the judg-
ment of Wall street is justified, but
that something approaching s20,o0oooo
of annual surplus is proved. The North
ern Pacific shows an apparent surplus
Of s1l, l,735,9s2, or 7.57 per cent on
capital stock of sl55. 100000. in addi-
tion TO z per cent dividends, amounting
20 slo.e50,0o0, for the year ended June
80, 1905. To this surplus must he added
s5,s0l ,646, overcharge from income TO
maintenance. The Burlington s sur
plus is given at l9,261 900, or s54,-
e3l 900 for the three systems. -
Mr.. Adams says he is convinced the
financial reports of the railroads have
been drawn up with the purpose of con.
cealing profits, and that his estimate
of S5s, 100000 probably falls below the
real figures. However, it serves to sup.
gest what the exercise OF the power Of
arbitrary taxation means in the hands
of irresponsible individuals. This coup
try pays annually upward of SD, 900.
600 OF tribute more than Ii lawfully
shouId to those who have rad,ool -