Los Angeles herald., 1910-04-10
Leftover Work
Of Legislature
of 1909. By Hic%Sey% Hs%gsT@

I asst week the writer showed in
these columns how the machine
- element in the state senate at the
last legislative session secured the de-
| feat of the effective Stetson railroad
regulation bill and the passage of the
! ineffective Wright bill. 1t was shown
further how the machine senator's and
lobbyists raised the point that the au-
| thority granted the state board of rail-
road commissioners under the Stetson
bill to fix absolute railriad rates is un-
constitutional, and how the contest be-
tween the proponents of the two meas
ures was fought out on this issue. The
Wright bill authorized the maximum
rate" which, according to the machine
element at Sacramento, is the only rate
that can legally be established I'm Cali
fornia until the state constitution shall
be amended
Under the absolute rate" provision
of the Stetson bill, the railroad COM
mssioners were granted authority in
the event OF a dispute between shippers
and common carriers over rates, to fix
a rate from which the common carrier
could not depart without permission
from the commissioners. This, experts
claim, would have rendered impossible
a great number of the abuses of dis
elimination. rate manipulation and the
like of which railroads have been guilty.
Under the maximum rate" provision
of the Wright bill, which became the
law. the commissioners are authorized
to fix maximum rate" beyond which
the common carrier cannot go but be-
low which the carrier is left to manipu-
late rates. With high maximum rate
established, the railroads are under
this rule practically free from rate reg
ulation.
Curiously enough, neither the term
absolute rate" nor maximum rate"
appears in the state constitution.
Article XII, section 22 of the con-
stitution provides that the state board
of railroad commissioners shall have
power and II shall be their duty to es-
tablish rates of charges for the trans
portation of passengers and freight by
railroads or other transportation COM
panes.'
Further along In the same section it
is provided that "any railroad corpo-
ration or transportation company which
shall fail or refuse to conform to such
rates as shall be established by such
commissioners, or shall charge rates in
excess thereof. shall be fined
not exceeding $4,000 for each onense"
The anti-machine senators and attor-
neys representing large shipping inter-
ests held that the words in the consti-
tution-"fail to conform to such rates"
mean just what the dictionaries say
they do; that the railroad charging
rate In excess of that fixed by the rail-
road commissioners. or a rate less than
that fixed by the commissioners, is not
conforming to the rates. and is there
fore liable TO the penalties attached.
Such, at least. seems to be reason
able construction Of a very simple
phrase.
But not so. insisted the machine
members and the railroad lobby. These
skipped over the words fail TO con-
form to such rates" and saw only "or
shall charge I'm excess thereof Thls
pro-railroad element held that mas
much as the constitution says that the
railroads shall not charge in excess of
the rates fixed by the railroad com
missioners, the railroads are at liberty
to reduce the rates as fixed by the
commissioners. In other words, ac-
cording to the pro-railroad element,
the constitution authorizes the fixing
of maximum rates only.
SO far as the writer knows, nobody
contended that the maximum rate
would prove practical In enectiVe rall-
road regulation, the argument used by
its proponents being that the maxi |
mum rate alone is constitutional. But
authorities agree that the absolute rate
is practical, and empowered with the
authority to fix the absolute rate, the
railroad commission would be made ef-
fective. To meet the argument of the
machine element that the absolute
rate cannot be consttutionally fixed
in california the anti-machine mem |
hers proposed to amend the constitu-
tion so that the alleged antiquities
in the matter of rate fixing could be
removed. An amendment was accord
ingly offered which substituted for the
long list of constitutional powers anu