Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1908-06-12
RAIL COM MISSION
ACT HELD VALID
BY HIGH COURT
FAMOUS $500" CASE DECIDED IN
FAVOR OF STATE BY SU-
PREME COURT.
THE LAW Is NOT VIOLATED.
Roads Are Compelled to Stop Trains at
Dwight, Small Station in
Polk County.
ACTION HAD SMALL BEGINNING.

MADISON, Wis, June 81 Special
The act creating the state railroad rate
commission was held valid by the state
supreme court today.
The decision was made in what is
known as the famous 500 case which
was first argued about three months ago.
In the decision the court holds that the
powers of the commission were not ex-
ceeded in ordering the Minneapolis, st.
Paul q Sault Ste. Marie Railway com
pany to stop its trains at Dwight, Polk
county.
Railroad Took Appeal.
The $500" case was taken to the su-
peme court on an appeal by the railroad
company from the judgment of the cir
cult court of Dane county affirming the
reaSOnableneSS of the order of the com
mission in the Dwight controversy.
Dwight has a milk skimming station and
the farmers were compelled to haul their
cream to- DerOnda. three and one-half
miles distant. The commission ordered
one OF the four trains daily to stop at
Dwight, the railroad resisted in the cir
cunt court and appealed from the affirm
atlve verdict, upon the following
grounds: o. That the order made by
the defendant was unreasonable and
confiscatory; (2) that the defendant COM
mission had no power to make
such order; and CD that the making of
the order was prohibited by the old
statute enacted in 1874, providing that
trans must stop at every, town or vii
lage of 200 or more inhabitants and q
postoffice. The commission disputed all
OF these points, holding, through the
attorney general, that the needs of the
town justified an Improvement of service;
that It's power to demand such improve
ment was unquestioned and that the old
1914 statute, 50 far as it applied TO this
case, had been abrOgated by the new law
OF 1903. The commission declared that
the stoppage at Dwight would entail an
additional expense to the railroad of %
cents per train.
Sermonette to Roads.
Interesting in connection with the case
is the "sermODette" on the duty of rail
roads contained in the brief of the at
tOrney general
1T is but elementary to say that rail
roads are not private corporations, nor
are they organized and operated solely
for their purpose of profit to the stock
holders thereof, though a contrary Opin-
ion may obtain in some quarters. They
are public institutions, controlling the
great highways of the state, which owe
duty to the state and to the public
as we'll as their stockholders, and within
constitutional limita tons, they must be
operated for the convenience and accom-
mediation of the people.
The inhabitants of small communities
who require service by railroad corpora
ton are as certainly entitled thereto as
those living in larger communities,
though perhaps not entitled TO so great
or extensive a service. Reasonable ser.-
ice should be furnished smaller cOmmII-
mites if it may be done without serious
ly interfering with the business of the
the corporation in its service at other
poin.s and where the service required IS
reasonable and not confscatory of the
property of such corporation"