The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-03-30
OFFICIAL FAMILY
STANDS ENJO|NED
Next Move In Railroad Lltiga-
tiOn Is PrebIematic
ATTORNEY CARRIER TALKS
Has Not Yet Completed the Task of
Reading the voIuminous Decision.
Some Results of Judge
Jones' Decision.
ATTORNEY CARRIER TALKS

montgomery, Mdrcn zJ-(SpeClal.) lin
all, or practically all, of the railroad lit
igation between the state and the three
big systems that have been fighting the
rate and regulation laws, the state has
lost, so far as the first brush in the
federal court Is concerned In his opin-
ion of Saturday, Judge Thomas G. Jones,
sitting in the United States court for
the middle district, declared that about
everything commended for by the state
was invalid in the light of the constitu-
lions both of the state and the nation.
Just what will be the next move on the
part of the state is not yet brought out.
Attorney General CARRIER, when asked
what would be done, said that he was
not able so early to Indicate. He had
not read, in the first place, the full opin-
ion of the United tSates supreme court
in the Minnesota and North Carolina
cases, nor had he been able to read the
opinion of Judge Jones, comprising as
it does, ~ pages of closely printed mat
ter. He had not been able, either, to
confer with associate counsel in the mat
ter since the high or the lower court had
passed upon the litigation. Short of do
ing all these things, he would not be able
to say just what course the future ac-
ton would take.
Wide Range.
There is, evidently. wide range of rul-
ing in the decision of the supreme court,
but is it wide enough to cover such o
thing as an injunction that will reach
not only head officers and petty officers
of the state, but the individual citizen as
well? This is a question that is being left
for the full opinion of justice Peckham
to answer. 1t is contended that if this
is so the federal courts of minor juris-
diction, or of any general powers, may
even control and regulate the state grand
every field of state and individual right.
This is the view that is taken prior to the
full report on the contentious.
1t is a matter of interest that the
opinion of Judge Jones handed down
Saturday, was written and was being
printed when the case from to- supreme
court was put out. 1t is also a fact that
in an opinion rendered September Z last,
the same judge held that suits of this
class were not suits against the state;
also that any penalty feature which
tended, in case of loss of litigation, to de-
prive a man of his property, was, on its
face, violative of the organic laws of
state and United States.
Some Results.
Strange will be the outcome in the lit
igation if, in the end, the supreme court
upholds Judge Jones. All of the laws
that seem of benefit to the traffic lines
will have beenaccepted, WINE all, or prac-
tically ALL that they have resisted will
be killed. The anti-pass act puts thou
sands of dollars a month into the hands
of the rail lines, and certain other reg
ulations do them much good in many
ways.
1t is also a fact that, losing out with
the fighting lines, the Louisville and
Nashville, the Central of Georgia and the
Western of Alabam, the state will lose
with all the others. These lines being
allowed to charge the old rates, if in the
end they are, will mean the whole bunch
doing the same thing. If allowed to do
so it is pretty certain that the three will
keep the charges up, and the others, in
that event, will be quite sure to trail
along, so that it will not be a far guess
to say that the old rates will soon be put
back to service.
Future Questions.
However, the question of rates has yet
to be determined. The decision knocks
down the penalty clauses, but does not
rule on the reasonableness of the rates.
That will be gone into extensively in a
short time. 1t is anticipated that ref
cree will be named and the evidence gone
into so that the real earnings may be de-
termined in such way as is provided.
1t is notable that the question of how
ymuch the railroads should be allowed to
earn is put by Judge Jones at per cent.
Zine amount has in most cases been fixed
at 6, though the judges as rule think
that to allow is not out of line with fair
-and Just treatment under the doctrine
that a holder of railroad stock has as
much right to large returns as those
of any other class of securities.
Until the state is determined upon
course and Judge Jones, who has gone
to Washington for a meeting of COM
mittee of the American Bar association,
returns, matters will be allowed to run
along as they are, during which time the
whole official family, state and county,
with every citizen who might offend, are
enioined from attempting to enforce any
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