The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-22
Gov. Hadley Says If Railroads
Stop Discriminating
Two Cent Rate Laws Will Cause
No Trouble.
RIGHT OF THE STATE
To Regulate He Declares to Be
UnQuestiOned.
Law Involved i'm the Case Is
Question OF Fact.

Kansas City, Mo-, Jan 22-Gover-
nor Herbert S. HadIey made the prin-
cipal argument here today for the
state in the Missouri rate cases and a
! great array of railway attorneys and
| others were on hand to hear him.
Judge o. NJ. Spencer of st. Joseph,
Mo, general solicitor of the Chicago.
Burlington & Quincy. made the leading
argument of the day for the railways
| Gardiner Lathrop for the Santa Fe
Will not address the court till Satur-
day.
proposed freight rates were reasonabI
and that if the railways would stop
discriminating they could easily comply
with the two cent law Judge Spen-
Ger declared that the laws under con-
Sideratlon on their face refuted the
| legal presumption in their favor that
they were framed after due considera-
tion. The laws, he declared. came
about as the result of political condi-
tions and not from any public demand
or public necessity
Governor Hadley in his closing argu-
ment for the state in the two cent fare
case said that the important question
of law involved in this case is a aues-
ton of fact. The right of the state,
he declared to regulate the freight
and passenger rates is unquestioned,
il that regulation is exercised within
the limitations of the constitution
Gov. Hadley reviewed the history rate
legislation in Missouri. and continu-
ing he said the freight law of 1907 re-
duced freight rates thirty per cent
upon certain commodities. He con-
tinued: "It has been shown by the
testimony in this case that the rates
in the state of Iowa and Illinois, states
similar in topography and in the dem
Sity of their population to the north
half of the state of Missouri. are from
25 to 80 per cent lower than the rates
that were being charged by the rail-
road companies in this state And,
yet, according to the contention of the
railroad companies. it would cost less
to carry on the state freight busin ess
in those states than it does here, SIM
ply because the earnings from that
part of their traffic are lower. If you
would increase ti,e rates in those
states. according to the railroads
theory of dividing expenses, you would
increase expenses.
''I assert that this theory of divid-
ing expenses between state and in
terstate traffic in proportion to reve-
nue. is devised for the purpose of liti-
CATION: that it contradictS itself be-
cause it attacks the correctness of the
measure by which it undertakes to
determine the question at ISSUE In
actual operation, the determinative
test in railroad business is the ton
mile, the theory contended for by the
state in this litigation. If that theory
is adopted, according to the figures
of the railroad companies themselves,
there is no road in the state of Mis-
souri,, with possibly two or three ex-
ceptions, that is not making in excess
of six per cent upon a liberal valua-
tion of its property.
Figures Upset Contention of Roads.
''In the passenger business, the
facts are equally strong and persuasive
in favor Of the contention of the state
and the reasonableness of the two
cent fare"
Governor Hadley continued: For ten
=, f,,-r rNf 4I,i eVTlf
the railroads of the country had enjoy
ed a condition of unexampled prosper
ity and the year 1907 witnessed the
greatest returns to the railroads they
railroad construction. And with all of
these So-called confiScatory laws,
against which such a hue and cry has
been raised by the railroads of the coun-
try, the earnings of the railroads in
1908 were second only to the earnings
of the railroads in 1907.
"The railroads have demonstrated the
falsity of their contention by their un-
questioned prosperity during the course
of the last ten years If their figures
are correct in this litigation for the
years 1907 and 1908, they are true for the
years 1897 and 1898. And if they are true
for these years and the years that lie
between those dates, there wouldn't be
railroad in Missouri today but what
would be in the hands of a receiver.
The railroads have themselves demon
Strated the reaSOnableneSS OF the two
cent fare.
IF they would stop issuing passes
continued the governor. "and diScrimi
mating between those who are best able
to pay as against those who are least
able to do so, they could easily comply
with the two cent law. If in ten years
with an increase in passenger traffic of
approximately 100 per cent and an in
crease in equipment and mileage of but
% per cent, the railroads are not abund-
antly able to comply with these laws
reducing freight and passenger rates,
are not nearly so efficient as operators
as they are as Witnesses
Charged to Politics.
Judge Spencer said in part:
This is not a fight against Missouri
but a fight for Missouri The railroads
have made Missouri the fifth state in
the union and if let alone will help
her go nearer the top of the list.
THE maximum freight law under
consideration came about as the re-
suit OF political conditions and not
from any public demand or public ne
cessity. 1t followed, as such laws US
uaIly do. the agitation of reform and
the change in party power. 1t came
into existence in Missouri about the
time the mysterious stranger made its
appearance in Missouri. For the first
time in 80 years, the political parties
changed power in this state. The new
party cast around to see what action
it might take to render itself popular
with the people, and without cause or
reason assailed the railroads with this