Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-24
DECISION
COVERS TWO
VITAL CASES
SOUTH CAROLINA AND MINNIE
sofa LOSE
HIGHEST TRIBUNAL FINDS FOR
CORPORATION
Penalties Are Declared to Be Excess
sIve--Attorney General Must
Pay Fine-Ticket Seller
Released
lContinued from Page onel

(Continued from Page One)
in Imprisonment for the various agents
of the company who would dare dis
obey for a term of ninety days each for
each offense. Disobedience to the pas
senger rate act renders the party guilty
of felony and subject to fine not
exceeding $4,000 or Imprisonment in the
state prison for a period not exceeding
five years, or both fine and imprison-
ment. The sale of each ticket above
the price permitted by the act would be
violation thereof.
ut would be difficult If not impos-
sbie for the company to obtain Of
ficers, agents or employees willing to
carry on these affairs except in obe-
dience to the act and orders in ques-
tion. The company itself would also,
in case of disobedience, be liable to i'm
mense fines provided for in violating
orders of the company. The company,
in order to test the validity of the acts.
must find some agent or employe to
disobey them at the risk stated. The
necessary effect and result of such
legislation must be to preclude q re-
sort to the courts-either state or fed
eral--for the purpose of testing its
validity.
1.-The officers and employees could not
be expected to disobey any of the pro-
visions of the acts or orders at the
risk of such fines and penalties being
imposed upon them in case the court
should decide the law was valid. The
result would be a denial of any hear
ing to the company.
A law which indirectly achieves a like
result by imposing such conditions
upon the right to appeal for judicial
relief as works an abandonment of the
right rather than face the conditions
upon which it is offered or may be
obtained is also unconstitutional. 1t
may, therefore, be said that when the
penalties for disobedience are by fines
so enormous and Imprisonment so Sc
we're as to intimidate the company and
it's officers from resorting to the courts
to test the validity of the legislation,
the result is the same as if the law in
terms prohibited the company from
seeking judicial construction of laws
which deeply affect its rights"
Attorney General Fined
The proceeding in Young's case grew
out of an effort by the Minnesota fed
eral court on May 81 last to restrain
Mr.. Young and other state officials
from executing or attempting to exc
cute the rate law. Certain stockholders
of the Northern Pacific Railroad COM
pany filed a suit at the time asking
for an injunction to prohibit the state
officials from carrying the law into ef-
feet on the ground that the rate fixed
was so low as to make impossible re-
turns to the company on its invest
ment.
The Injunction was granted on Sep
tember 23 on the ground that the law
was confiscatory, and its promulgation
was Immediately followed by the COM
nencement of an action by Attorney
General Young in the Ramsey county
state district court in which that court
was asked to direct the issuance of
writ of mandamus commanding the
Northern Pacific company to comply
with the rate law. The state court i'm
mediately issued the writ in compli-
ance with Mr.. Young's petition, and
this proceeding precipitated sharp
conflict between the federal and the
state courts.
Mr.. Young was summoned before the
former to give an account of his de-
fiance of the courts injunction and,
failing to make a satisfactory eXplana-
tion, he was subjected to fine OF 800
for contempt of court and at the same
time ordered to dismiss the case in
the state court.
Refusing either to pay the fine or TO
dismiss the case Mr. Young imme-
diately brought the case to the su-
IRENE court of the United States on
a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
Ffe based his petition upon the grounds
that the federal circuit court was with
out jurisdiction in the original pro-
ceeding because there was no diverse
citizenship and that the suit Instituted
against him as attorney general was
in effect a suit against the state and
not against him.
Sentenced to Rock Pile
The North Carolina case, that of
Sheriff Hunter of Buncombe county VS..
Agent Wood of the Southern railway.
attracted much attention during the
greater part of last summer, and was
for time the cause of sharp conflict
between the courts of the United
States and those of North Carolina.
Wood was indicted, found guilty and
sentenced to serve a term of thirty
days on the rock pile at AsheVille on
the charge of selling railroad tickets
for more than the maximum rate es-
tablished by the statute. lie imme-
dlately appealed to Judge Pritchard,
sitting in the federal court for the
estern district of North Carolina, and
the latter promptly issued a writ of
habeas CORPUS ordering Woods release
by Sheriff Hunter.
This action of the court was the
GulUllndllOn Ol several iulpOIldll SltpS
in the controversy, beginning with the
issuance of injunctions by Judge
Pritchard against the state officials
prohibiting the carrying of the rate
law into effect. This proceeding was
followed by an address by Governor
Glenn to the superior courts of the
state, questioning Pritchard's author
ity and asking them to see that in
dictments were found against the
agents of the railroad company In
accordance with this a number of ar
rests were made so that Woods case
became test case for many others.
Case Important
So important did Judge Pritchard
consider the action of the state courts
that he said in his opinion, IF the
criminal prosecutions against the
agents, conductors and employees are
pei mitted to continue the managers
of the railroads cannot successfully
operate their trains, carry the mails
or continue their usefulness as COM