The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1909-05-27
Railway Persecution.

Railroad attorneys and others are
continually talking about the perse-
cution of railroads. in Missouri. Every
once In while, even out here in Ia
ney county, we here unthinking peo-
pie say that the stringent times are
caused by the two cent rate, meaning
that because the railroads are not max
igg money they are not pushing work,
thereby causing stagnation of busi-
ness.
One of the latest to let loose is Mr.
James E. Smith, President of the Busi-
ness Mems League, of St. Louis.
Like others Mr.. Smith sees things"
and makes the charge that officials
of our own state of Missouri have been
prosecuting the railways to the point
of persecutiyn." Below we give Gov
ernor Hadley's reply to him, making
no further comment, believing that his
statement speaks for itself
Mr.. Smith is entitled to his opinion
as to the course that the state should
pursue in the contest with the railroad
companies over freight and passengar
rates, as is every citizen, whether he is
business man or laborer. When
Mr.. Smith says that during the last
year Officials of our own State
Missouri have been prosecuting the
railways to the point of persecution,
BE shows that he is ignorant of the
fact or desires to Intentionally mislead
the people. He is equally ignorant or
mendacious when he states that these
prosecutions have already cost our state
over S 100000"
The fact of the case are that up un-
til the 9th of last April the only suits
that were being conducted in the courts
between the state and the railroads
were those which were brought by the
eighteen railroads against the people.
In these cases Gov. Folk and I had
one OF two courses to pursue. We
could let judgement go by default and
thus permit the freight and passenger
rate laws, passed by the Legislature
two years ago to be overthrown without
a contest, or we could employ experts
to prepare the evidence and to en-
deavor to develop the facts. 1t seems
that Mr. Smith would have preferred
that the state should have taken the
first course and meekly submitted with
out a contest Gov. Folk and I deci-
ded upon different course, and in de-
Tending suits brought by the railroads
against the people of Missouri there
has been incurred an expense of ap-
proximately $4,000.
UNJUST TO MISSOURI.
In this litigation, these facts were
That the railroads are
charging the people nf Missouri freight
rates from 25 to IS ter cent higher
than they are charging the people of
Iowa and Illinois. Perhaps MIR. Smith
egards the defense of a suit in which
the people of Missouri were trying to
secure as low rates as are accorded to
the people OF other states as perse5u-
ton, but I am disposed to think that
the great mass 0: the people of M S curi,
who never received special favors from
the railroads and never expect to, would
lock at the subject differently.
The only suits that are prosecuted
against the railroad companies by the
state are the injunction suit begun by
Circuit Attorney Jones and the quo
wananto suit brought by the attorney
general by reason of the fact that the
railroads had entered into an agree
ment to put into effect.a Scent pas
senger rate in the State of Missouri on
the 30th of April, Notwithstanding the
fact that they were charging the people
of every contiguous state but 2 cents a
mile, except Arkansas, and in Arkan-
D IL cents a mile When the rail-
roads announced their intention to
discriminate against the people of
Missouri I asked Circuit Attorney Jones
to bring an Injunction suit restraining
them from doing so. He brought that
rr,it and r,revenfed this threatened in