The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-08

has abundant authority to enforce it's orders and punish disobedience of them. The result of the decisions on the main point shows in what plight the solicitors, sheriffs and others would have been left. if they had needed the advice of the Governor to arrest rail- road men in violation of the orders of the court. The decision makes 1t as plain as anything can be made, that the jurisdiction of the Federal Court was complete. that 1t was bound to ex- erciss 1t. and that the cry that states' rights were invaded or local govern ment interfered with. was the veriest nonsense. and this was the burden of the song of the politicians at the ex- tra session of the Legislature. and the ground of many coarse attacks upon the judge.
 ] Another thing made plain by the de- cision Is that the extra session of the legislature and the laws there passed had no effect upon the litigation. was utterly useless as an effort to deprive the court of Jurisdiction of the cases and that the device of preventing State officers from enforcing the law. so that nobody could be enjoined. was. in the constitutional sense, the veriest non- sense.
 Notwithstanding the iegislation at the extra session. the commission had finally to do what good lawyers always said it would have to do. meet the case as one of fact upon the merits. The changes Ht ths extra session. so far as the rates are concerned. made no difference in the matter. The comtnis. sion. when the cases were first called nearly two years ago. by then contro- verting the facts. as they after did on the second set of suits, could have ob- tained the same decision as to putting on the rates more than year ago, as has been lately pronounced by the ma tority Of the court at New Orleans. The delay in thus bringing matters ts head on that point and delaying the final decision sis the only result of the extra session. which is the usual one of playing politics with the merits of lawsuit. It Is hard to detect any real regard for the interest of the peo- pie or high legal learning in the meas ures at the extra session. so far as they were designed to compel the putting of the rates in operation.
 The Court of Appeals opin- ion is silent as to some im- portant questions raised and avoids any decision of them. The lower court held that the railroads were entitled to earn eight per cent. on the fair value of their property used in intra- state commerce. that the evidence clearly showed that under the old rates none of them earned over four per cent. and that under the new rates that making every allowance for mis- takes as to values and SO on. none of them could earn as much as six per cent. This per cent is the amount the Supreme Court decided the gas com pany was entitled to earn. where it had a practical monopoly in the city of New York, where there were few. if any risks in the business. The Court of Appeals does not pass on the ques- tfon of the amount of net. profits to which the companies were entitled. but Al amount of net profit would be guess on the theories and opinions of experts. and. therefore. it could not tell any thing about 1t until there was an &C., tual trial. The upshot of the whole thing is that the fight over. the rates must go on in the Federal Court while the rates are being tested by actual op- eration until final proof is taken. and then the case will have to be decided and the appeal win have to go to the Supreme Court of the United States. It will probably be several years before the litigation is ended.
 1 There is an tntimation in the opin- ion that the railroads delayed the liti- gation for these fast two years. but on what that is based, is not perceiv- ed. The commission did not answer and get all the bills at issue until Sep tember. 1907. and then the extra ses. sion came on, and new bills were filed and hundreds of pages of evidence taken. The case was decided over a year ago. and further progress has been hung up since pending an appeal of the commission In the Circuit Court of Appeals.
 It seems that counsel for the com mission did not place any reliance on the outlaw statute. which deprives the railroads of the right to do wholly State business. If they remove a case to the Federal Court. The commits sion's lawyers avoided this by fail .,-,,a kha n,xastgo- Al, aawt-. Et