The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1909-05-06

In interstate commerce from being as
ISOLATED In interest at the time OF
transportation with commodities trans-i
ported. and therefore the commodities
clause only. prohibits railroad compa-
MES engaged in Interstate M
from transporting such
commodities under the following cir
cumstances and conditions:
Some Exceptions.
(A) When h commodity has been
manufactured, mined or produced by O.
railway company or under its au-
thority, and at the time OF t~ransporta-
ton the railway company has not In:
good faith. before the act of transpor-
tation, passed with Its interests In such
commodity; OBJ when the raiiroad
company owns the commodity to BID
transported in whole or in part: (C)
when the railway company, at the time
Of transportation, has an interest, di1
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 q stakeholder in such corpora
ducing company by a railway com
lpany does not cause 1t, as the owner of
the stoick, to have a legal interest In,
the commodity manufactured, ETC., by
he producing corporation.
thus construed the COM
modtties 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
h government gave that clause and
for the purpose Of enforcing which
prohibitions these suits were brought.
The Timber Exemption.
AS the construction which the gov-
eminent placed upon the act and seeks
to enforce is now held to be unsound
and as none of the contentious relied
upon are applicable to the act as now
construed under such CON-
struction the act merely enforces a reg
ulation of by which carriers
are compelled to dissociate themselves
from the products which they carry and
do moi prohibit, where the carrier is
not associated with the commodity car
ried. 1T follows that the contentious on
h subject of the fifth amendment are
without merit.
Fourth-The exemption as to timber,
etc, contained in the clause is not re-
pugnant to h constitution.
Fifth-The provision as to penalties
is separable from the other provisions
~ AZ 1eSON L "
was prayed, no issue concerning them
Is here presented. 1t will be time
enough to consider whether the right to
recover penalties exists when an at
tempt to collect penalties Is made.
Sixth-As the construction now given
the act differs so widely from the con-
struction which the government gave to
the act n which 1t was the purpose
Of these suits to enforce, it is held that
1t is not necessary. in reversing and re-
manding, to direct the character of de-
crees which shall be entered, but sim
ply to reverse and remand the case
With directions to enforce and apply the
statute as 1t is now construed.
Seyenth-As the Delaware & Hudson
company is engaged as q common car
rier by rail in the transportation of
coal In the channels Of Interstate COM
merce 1T is the railroad with
In the purview OF the commodities
clause and subject to the provisions of
that clause as they are now construed.
DELAWARE q HUDSON
CLAIMS NOT AFFECTED
New York, May Wv. S. Opdyke, jr.,
general counsel for the Delaware g.
Hudson company, one of the defendants
In the commodities case, said TODAY:
This decision allows the railroad
companies to continue as now con
stituted, that is, those which do not
own the coal mines directly. but eyer
else control through coal companies.
whose stock they own. Reading, Penn
| sylavnia, and in part, the Erie, Lehigh
4 w o~5 So