The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-05-06

N interstate commerce. from being as
ISOLATED In Interest at the time OF
transportation with commodities trans.
ported. and therefore the commodities
clause only prohibits railroad compa-
MES engaged In interstate
from transporting such commerce
commodities under the following cir
cumstances and conditions:
Some Exceptions.
CA When the commodity has beer
manufactured, mined or produced by a
railway company or under It's au-
tnortty, and at the time of ~transporta-
ton the railway company has not in
good faith, before the act of transpor-
tation, passed with it's interests in such
commodity; OBJ when the railroad
company owns h commodity to be-
transported in whole or in part; (C)
when n railway company, at the time
or transportation, has an interest, di-
rect or indirect, in a legal sense in the
commodity, which last prohibition does
not apply to commodities manufac-
tured, mined, produced, owned, etc, by
the corporation by a railway COM
pany Is a stakeholder In such corpora =
ton. Such ownership of stock in a pro-
ductng company by a railway com
pany does not cause 1t, as the owner of
the stoick, to nave a legal interest I'm
the commodity manufactured, etc, by
the producing corporation.
Thtrd-As thus construed the com.
modities clause is a regulation of COM
merce within the power Of congress to
enact. The contentious deliberately
deliberately argued for the railroad
companies that the clause, If applied to
~pre-existing rights will operate to take
property of railroad companies and,
therefore, violate the due process
clause of the fifth amendment, were all
based upon the assumption that the
clause prohibited and restricted in con-
nection within the construction which
the government gave hat clause and
FOR the purpose of enforcing which
prohibitions these suits were brought.
The Timber Exemption.
AS h construction which the gov
eminent placed upon the act and seeks
to enforce Is now held to be ~unsound
n as none of the contentious relied
upon are applicable to the act as now
construed because under such con
struction the act merely enforces a reg
ulation of commerce by which carriers
are compelled to dissociate themselves
from the products which they carry and
do not prohibit, where the carrier Is
not associated with the commodity car.
ried. 1t follows that the contentious or
the subject Of the fifth amendment are
without merit.
Fourth-The exemption as to timber
etc, contained in the clause is not re.
pugnant to the constitution.
Fffth-The provision as to penalties
is s~eparable from the other provisions
of the act. AS no recovery of penaltie.
was prayed. no issue concerning then
Is here presented. 1t will be time
enough to consider whether the right t
recover penalties exists when an at,
tempt to collect penalties is made.
Sixth-As the construction now giver
the act differs so widely from the con,
struction which the government gave t
the act and which 1t was the purpos,
OF these suits to enforce, 1t is held tha
1t Is not necessary, ~in<reyersing and re
handing, to direct the character Of de
crees which shall be entered, but sim
ply TO reverse and remand the cas-,
with directions to enforce and apply tn,
statute as 1t Is now construed.
SeVenth-As the Delaware & Hudson
company is engaged as a common car
rier by rail in the transportation o
coal in the channels of Interstate com
merce 1t is. the railroad company with
in the purview of the commoditie
clause n subject to the provisions o
that clause as they are now construed