The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-17

struction to the other. and I think some way can be found"
 Mir. StringfelIow arguing that the | litigation was a suit against the gtate.
 contended that the Federal Court was l without jurisdiction in the matter. MT. Stringfellow's argument was not
 as technical and dry as some that have
 peen delivered and two or three flashes | or humor. with which the address was
 interspersed. brought out broad smile l From the crowded court room.
 Mr. StringfeIlow held tenaciouslv to
 tne Idea that whether 1t was just or
 unjust the doctrine in the Pitts against
 McGee case was the law. It might
 work hardship, or 1t might open the. door for wrong. but it was. neverthe-
 less. the law. he contended. Mr. Cunningham speaIH.
 The argun ent of T. M. Cunningham IT,. at the eftarEoon session of the court impressed all who heard it. Mir. Cunningham was especially clear in inc presentation of his position and in mar shalling his argument to support 1t.
 ne nad no trouble in passing from one point to another or. in laying his hand on whatever authority he wanted. The argument was as compact as it was clear, and 1t hardly spread over a period of two hours. which made it short as arguments go in the big hear Ing.
 If the question before the court ig whether Q legislative enactment can destroy constitutional provision and withdraw the protection of the court from the rights of property, I am here to argue the negatfve."
 He devoted himself particularly to the argument of Mir. Stringfellow. He refuted the claim that the Attorney General and the members of the Rail- M all power in the enforcement of the railroad acts. He quoted sections from the laws to show that they were not only invested with the power of rais- ing and lowering rates. but they were given a part in all suits brought in the State courts according to the plans laid down in the railroad acts. According to the peculiar laws of the Alabama Legislature the officers had power in every particular except where they might be drawn in Federal Court liti- gation.
 In alluding to the acts of the Ala bama Legislature which were under discussion. Mir. Cunningham said with some sarcasm: "out of .deference to the court will call them legisla- tion."
 Holding that the State officials are still invested with the power to en- fore the rate legislation, Mfr. Cunning ham declared there is nothing in the claim of the attorneys for the State that the litigation is suit against the State on the proposition that no officers are especially charged with the enforcement of the laws.
 But Mir. Cunningham chose as the vantage point on which to make his the Fourteenth Amendment. He laid emphasis on the promise con- tained in the amendment that property could not be taken without due pro- cess of law. Then he described the single and only way in which the val idity of the rates could be attacked under the State law. Under that pro- viso the road would be subjected to penalties of millions and millions or dollars if they failed to establish that the rates were neither fair nor reason- able. He asked if that was due pro- cess of law. An act prescribing such a manner of going into the courts he V as null and void because it denied = ial protection of the law. He sF YeEed upon this argument and a slxed i any reasonable man would say that the railroads of Alabama under the new acts were given equal protec- tion of the law with other property If fhey were not given the equal pro- lection of the law, if no due process of law" was given them the acts were null and void.
 QuOted MaRy Decisions.
 MT. Cunningham referred to the va rious decisions bearing upon the issue He recalled the several decisions in which the Fourteenth Amendment was sustained by the Supreme Court of the limited States. In these decisions 1t was held that the state could not take the property of a citizen nor could It authorize any other agency to take it.
 He analysed the position of the stass ana asked what redress the road would nave if a Legislature could directly or take charge of private prop erty and the roads be forbidden from bringing any kind of . suit