The Topeka state journal., 1908-02-12
RAILROADS TO BLAME.
Senator Knox Says They Brought Their
Troubles on Themselves.

kalamazoo. Mich, Feb. 12.-Senator
Fhilander c. Knox, in an address be-
fore the Lincoln club of this city, last
nlght On The People, the Railroads
ana the National Authority gave a
clear statement of the present-day sit
uation and the conditions and import
ant FACTORS that led up to it. He said:
Mr: Toastmaster and Gentlemen:
What the great interstate railroads
nave demanded of the people through
the national authority in the past and
what the people through the same au-
tnorlty are now demanding of them,
constitute two distinct phases of Amer
lean economic and legal policy which
1t is interesting at this time to con-
template; and from this contemplation
we may get our bearings upon some
situations not difficult to understand,
but which have been much misunder-
stood.
with the imagipation of the Ameri-
can people captivated by the marvellous
utility and potentiality of the railroad
as a means of ntercommunication and
a factor in development, the first fifty
years of railroad history constitute a
period of generous and protecting gov
ernmental care.
In the meanwhile local governmental
policies in respect to railroad properties
and operations had been adopted and
embodied in state constitutions, laws
and judicial decisions. The adjustment
thority as it began to be invoked to
protect the interstate commerce of the
country from the exercise Of conflicting
local laws and regulations constitutes
the first epoch of our national policy,
and 1t was marked by progressive lib
erality and even zeal in extending fed
eral protection and encouragement
The railroads struggled for a time
against these conditions in the courts
without avail and finally, backed by
IN Iar1 or7d fcr nm
tinuous and expeditions transportation
and taking advantage of a most extra
ordinary and unpopular assertion Of
local authority, a move was made upon
congress to assert it's constitutional
power and assure to every railroad in
the United States the unhampered right
to carry persons and property from one
state to another and to connect with
roads of other states SO as to form con-
tinuous lines of transportation
Proceeding with even more rapid
pace, after the movement had begun,
the federal judicial authority supple
mented the legislative branch of the
government in it's effective work OF
establishing the supremacy Of the ma
tional to the exclusion of the state au-
thority over intercourse and the means
Of intercourse among the states.
After undergoing various modifca-
tions, the rule was squarely reversed
that the silence of congress upon any
the states free to regulate it within
their own territorial limits. The silence
of congress is now held to be eQufVa-
lent to a legislative declaration that
commerce between the states shall be
free from state regulation. This rule
proceeds upon the theory of exclusive
federal authority over the subject and
effects by the mere force Of its enunci-
alton a total exclusion of the state from
the field.
Thus far have endeavored to show
that the interstate; railroads of the
country have been the wards and bene
ficiaries of the federal government; that
from the beginning, the state control
lessened and the, national control pro-
gressively. increased to the point where
the last vestige of the local authority,
except in matters comparatively unim
portant and local in their bearings.
has been swept away and the national
power declared paramount and exclu-
sive And so far as this has been
brought about, it has been accomplish
ed by legislation solicited by the rail-
roads themselves and through judicial
doctrines for which they contended and
by executive action which they invoked.
The people looked on and approved this
rapid development OF federal control
with a full realization of the fact that
a single control was necessary for the
highest efficiency in railroad service.
If railroad managers had fully appre
ciated and respected their relations to
their trust and the true relations of
the highways of commerce to the peo-.
ple there would have been no necessity
for the regulative legislation which be-
gan in 1887 and will end only when
Justice and equality are fully establish
ed.
LAS the railroads sought the federal
power for their protection, so the peo-
pie resorted to the same power for
their own relief. It began gradually
to dawn upon the American people that
they were living substantially under
railroad domination SO far as their BUS
mess interests were concerned.
'"The agitation for railway legislation
preceding the passage of the act OF 1881
which created the interstate commerce
commission was caused by the fragrant
disregard by the general officers of rail-.
road companies of their obligations to
the public and their duties to their se--
curity holders" & S-e>
Portland Oregon.