The Washington times., 1909-08-25
DETERMINED WAR BEING
WAGED ON INTERSTATE
COMMERCE COMMISSION.

If any person suspected that when
Congress enacted the Hepburn railroad
rate law that action was in any sense
the end of the controversy over the
Government regulation of rates, that
person ought by this time to be un-
deceived.
Certainly. any who have been watch
ing the progress of events recently
cannot have failed to notice that a de-
termined effort is being made TO break
down the powers of the Interstate
Commerce Commission. That effort,
moreover, is no haphazard one. 1t is
not in the nature Of a spasmodic pro-
test. 1t is a carefully planned. we'll
organized movement on the part of
powerful railroads, with all their equip
ment Of money and brains, to make
war on the Government regulation Of
rates as it Is now exercised by the
Interstate Commerce Commission, and
the sooner the shippers of the country
awaken to the real situation the better
it is likely TO be for them
For a time, after the enactment Of
the Hepburn law, the railroads lay
quiet. But for some months past they
have been going into the courts and
have been seeking, by the use Of the
injunction and other legal processes, to
delay and obstruct the orders of the
commission at every turn. This fact
has been plain to those who have fol
lowed the course of things in the rail
road world with some care. 1t is EN-
phasized By the decision in the United
States circuit court at Chicago this
week, in which the order of the com
mission in the famous Missouri river
rate case has been enjoined.
This order sought to reduce the joint
rate from the Atlantic seaboard to the
Missouri river on irst-class matter.
Judge Grosseup. in his opinion, says the
commission has no power artifcially TO
divide the country into trade zones
tributary TO given trade and manufac-
turing centers.
But the question that probably viii
be raised in the public mind is whether
the Government shall have this power
% say what the rates shall be as affect
ing the relations between localities, or
whether the railroads themselves shall
exercise this colossal power. It is Ger
tain that if Judge Grosscup is right
in saying the Interstate Commerce
Commission cannot exercise such power,
then it must follow that the railroads
themselves have it. Everyone knows
that in the past they have exercised it,
and have decreed life to one business
community and death 20 another.
In many cases now in the courts the
railroads have enioined the orders Of
the commission. In one of these cases,
that of the Southern Pacific against the
commission, an order reducing a lum-
Der rate Is sought 10 be enioined. and
the square question Of the eonstitu-
tionality Of the commission exercising
the rate-regulating power is raised. 1t
viii not be long until the Supreme
Court gives q decision on this highly
important point 1t does not appear
that the railroads. with their command
Of the ablest legal intellects in the
sOuntry, are emitting any step by
wbieh the authority Of the commission
can be broken
And there Is another phase Of the
question which cannot escape notice, in
view Of the activity of the railroads in
the courts 1t relates to the proposed
legislation for next winter to split the
powers Of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, stripping that body Of its
administrative powers, and leaving it
only a part Of its present powers 1t
viii be worth while to watch this pro
posal with care. A good many WE'LL
informed folk see in it an effort 70 take
the interstate commerce laws in flank
and weaken them by indirection.
No doubt that in considering this
plan, the Administration intends to
strengthen the execution Of the inter
state commerce laws. But il is as GER
tain as anything can be that when the
project comes up in Congress there viii
be clever and sagacious. not to say