The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-24

- sion. Yet they caIne originally from the Governor with ailIthe sanctity and infalIibility Of papal bull. Laws passed at the July session as well as at the winter session were amended and repealed at the extra session. Yet they were so sacred when they were originally presented that no minority member was permitted to add an amendment which would correct the defects apparent to him.
 The Governor at the winter session had the Legislature to pass bill plac- ing the Alabama Great Southern in the first class and the Southern in the second class of the Railroad Classif- cation Bill. Such classification seem ed fair at the winter session, but when the extra session assembled ten months later the classification was so changed that the Alabama Great Southern and the Southern were placed in the third I rldSS4 +Ai-- q '
 The Governor insisted that bill should be passed making existing rates the maximum rates and providing thai the Railroad Commission should have the power to lower rates but under no circumstances have the power to raise rates. Even the Governor was mads to realize the manifest injustice of such an act and he had the Legisla- ture to undo it's work ana change the law.
 The Legislature was directed by the Governor to clothe the Railroad Com mission and the Attorney General wi.S | the power of enforcing all anti-raii- road laws. But this. according to his tfdea, proved a mistake, and he ordered the Legislature to remove the power given.
 The list could be continued indefinitely. A willing Legislature has let the Gov ernor make repeated mistakes and a willing Legislature has corrected those mistakes whenever the Governor was lwilling to admit that they were mis- takes. Have all mistakes been co~- rected? Is 1t not probable, is 1t not certain that mistakes have been made which have not been corrected and which do their own share of aar.n? Nobody in Alabama wanted the extra session but the Governor. The eispi- cion has become almost a certainty that when he declared he wou'd call an extra session unless three of the Alabama railroads surren isr.i their constitutional rights, he was offering a bold bluff, and that he regretted his bluff when he was forcei 10 carry it out. And when the Legislature wal assembled it was called upon to Eass every harrassing and annoying law against & railroad tha. shrewd and adroit minds could frame. This was the task of the Legislat ire--to frarse and pass every law that could annoy and aggravate the railr pads. Court procedure, legal custom, ihe>rss6hings : of experience. were all oserthrown. that the Governor might vent his spite ; against the railroads. The work of the
 extra session was in enabling the Goy.
 ernor to do this.
 Has the Governor succeeded in barr
 ing the railroads from the courts, It
 is hardly possible. But If he has, he has struck a blew to prosperity from
 which 1t will not recover until a new Legislature has met and un1one the evil.
 Leading members of the Leg,sInture
 left for their homes sav,Iy that they
 were confident that the Legislature
 would be called together within the
 ioxt twelve months in extra ses sion
 They declare that the railroad con-
 troversy is in as great tangle as it has
 ever been and they fear, and appar-
 ently with some reason, that the con
 dItion of the State; finances will de-
 mand heroic measures within the next
 year. Let us hope that they are mis.
 taken.
 There is something ths matter with
 Alabama. It is suffering from surfeit
 of undigested legislation.
 SUsPENDiNG LAWS WHILE TESTING