Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1907-08-01
State News of Interest
roo MANY COOKS FOR RAILWAYS
John Barnes Talks of Wisconsin Rate
LEGISLATION.

JCnn Barnes AXIS OF Wisconsin naeC
Legislation.
| John Barnes of Rhinelander, Wis.
who resigned as head OF the state
railway commission following the pas
sage by the state legislature and the
approval by Gov. Davidson of tie
2-cent railway fare BILL delivered an
address to the congregation of the
Peoples church in the Pabst theater
in Milwaukee on railway regulation,
in which he strongly criticised the leg
islature for meddling with the work OF
| the railway commission.
Mr.. Barnes recited a series OF gen
eral principles, explaining in a meas
ure the legal and ethical relations eX-
| listing between the carrier and the pup
| lie, and then discussed some OF the diff
| fculties encountered in an honest en-
| deavor to settle disputes between the
carrier and it's patron on broad prlncl-
pies of equity and justice. One of the
most serious difficulties in the path
way of efficient regulation is the dual
system of government under which we
| live, he said.
1--WE have here in Wisconsin the in
| cOngruity of an unusually intelligent
| legislature continued the speaker
| denying every municipality in the
state the right to exercise any control
or regulation whatever over its heat,
| light, telephone and street car cOmpa-
MES, and placing the power of regula-
ton with the railroad commission
and before the ink was dry on the pen
| that made the bill a law we find that
same legislature discreditlng the work
Of that same commission by overruling
a decision made by it, upon which
! large part of the year was spent. The
public utilities bill was signed on July
9 and the 2-cent fare bill on July 16.
Whether they meant to do SO or
not and | fully concede they did not,
the majority of the members of the
legislature of this state have adver
| tised the railroad commission as being
incompetent or dishonest as unmistak-
ably as if this phrase had been written
into the 2-cent fare bill
Every question involving the rights
Of the citizen on the one side and the
carrier on the other should be consid-
cred and determined by some tribunal
that will carefully investigate the
| facts and the law of the case and rem
der an absolutely impartial and judi
cial decision after such investigation.
If railroad legislation means any
thing but this it is false in it's incep-
ton and iniquitous in it's practice"
The affrOnt to the commissioners, If
any there was, was infnitesimal when
compared with the assault on the vital
principle involved in railroad legisla-
ton, he said.
If it could be legally done, the most
feasible way to regulate the business
Of railroad carriers, in his judgment,
would be to permit tho same body to
regulate intrastate and interstate
rates. This could not be accomplished
except by an amendment to the Fed
7ral Constitution, and he lid not think
the states would be disposed TO sur
render the right of regulation that now
intentionally belongs to them.
In conclusion he said that unless
railroads are permitted to charge rates
that will bring a reasonable percent.
age Of profits, extensions in the line of
railroad building will abruptly cease