The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1910-03-17

appeals will lie from the interstate
commerce court to the supreme court
of the United States. but It is urged
by friends of the new court plan that
parties to litigation will be satisfied
in many instances with the decision of
the lower court and that anyway. in
asmuch as 1t has only one class of
cases to hear, the new courts work
will be done quickly and that the route
to Justice will be much shorter than
1t has been in the past. There is
strong opposition to the interstate
commerce court amendment among
some of the Republicans of the senate
and among a considerable number also
in the house Of representatives. Sen
ators Cummins and Clapp are fighting
the provision for a new court 1t Is
said by the opponents of the plan
that there have only been 26 cases
taken on appeal from the interstate
commerce commission within the time
space of several years, and that there
seems to be no immediate chance that
the number of cases will increase
They say. therefore. that the court is
not needed. On the other hand, the
friends of the court say that because
of the long litigation that was sure to
be ahead of parties to a suit in the
| past appeals have not been taken and
that injustice. therefore, was done.
Provisions Objected To.
The new court provision is not the
only one to which objection is made
by some of the Republican senators,
most of whom are what is known as
| insurgents In the main the same
men were opposed to many of the
provisions of the Payne-Aldrich tariff
law. The charge is made that power
is taken away from the interstate
commerce commission to pass judg-
ment on all traffic agreements between
the railroads which are allowed by
law. 1t was one of President Roose-
velt's ideas that these traffic agree
ments should be allowed, but the SEN
ators who are in opposition say that
Mr.. Roosevelt intended to give the
interstate commerce commission the
power to decide on these agreements
and to reject them If they were not
considered proper and within the
spirit of the statutes.
The friends of the court provision
in the bill say that If the agreements
between the railroads are of the kind
to fix rates at too high a figure the
interstate commerce commission can
act just as 1t always has acted. The
opponents Of the bill declare, how
ever. that agreements may be made
which are in effect deadly to compe-
tition and yet they may not seem to
fix extraordinarily high rates.
Wants Legislation Pushed.
President Taft is beginning to show
daily more of the squirting" qualities
of Theodore Roosevelt. He is SEEM
ingly dissatisfied with the compare
lively slow progress which the legis-
lation that he has recommended is
making in congress, and, moreover, he
seems to have been somewhat dis.
turbed by the reports that the coun-
try is taking more interest in the mat
|
gress than 1t is in the progressive pol
icies of legislation which occupied all
its attention during the Roosevelt ad-
ministration.
Recently reports were published to
the effect that Mr.. Taft had practical
ly given over all attempts to induce
congress to pass the majority of his
legislative recommendations at this
session. To his political friends the
president was quick to make denial Of
any such intention. He has let 1t be
known that he not only wants postal
savings banks, changes in the inter-
state commerce law, and conservation
laws, but an anti-injunction statute
and all recommendations that he has
made, put through congress in law
form before the session closes and
the congressional campaign opens.
The Presidents Contentious.
The advisers Of the president say
that all through the tariff debate Mr..
Taft was firm in his belief that by
gentle measures which were in con-
trast to those of his immediate pre-
decessor he could get more out of con-
gress than could be obtained by big
stick methods. He professed satisfac-
ton with the tariff law. but it is said
by those who seem to know his in
ward feelings that he would have ex-
pressed a much stronger and deeper
satisfaction If the bill had gone furth-
er than it did in the cutting of customs
duties.
The members of both houses are
still getting scores of letters from
their constituents weekly, expressing
the deepest concern over the high cost
of living, and also expressing fear
that the committee on investigation
now sitting is bent on giving Secre-
tary Ballinger a clean bill of health
The president is concerned over the
feeling that the committee intends to
clear the interior department officials
and to clear them as a matter of
course and politics. Mr.. Taft said at
the outset that he wanted the truth
and nothing else, and that he did not
care whom IL hit, provided it was the
truth. He is a good enough politician
to know that anything that was ap-
parently in the nature of a whitewash
would do Mr. Ballinger no good, and
that If he had acted in way that he
should not have acted 1t would be just
as we'll for him to have that fact noted
in the report as it would be to have
it unnoted, but still perfectly plain to
the people at large.
GEORGE CLINTON.
A Byronic Relic.
A recent traveller in South Aus