The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-28

A6oAAAok liz III
Have u Been Employed Again to
Nullify the Long and Short Haul
Like the Outlines Of a Distant
Mountain Vance's Greatness Grows
as We View 1t From Altar.
BY THOMAS j. PENCE.
Washington, ID. c., June 21.-That
the late nat Zeb b. Vance had
prophetic visions, as we'll as a master
mind, is shown by the views Of the
debate over the Interstate Commerce
1887.
Twenty-three years ago the distin-
guished North Carolina Senator de-
ciared to the Senate that the words,
under substantially similar circum-
stances and conditions was a railroad
phrase inserted in the then pending
bill for the purpos of destroying the
long and short haul p~roviso.
In the debate in the Senate that has
been in progress for the past three
months, Senators openly admitted,
so much as a contradiction,
that the words "unde similar circum-
stances and conditions were put in
the bill for the purpose Of destroying
its real intent.
Thus twenty-three years afterwards
vindicat1on has come to these words
uttered by the then distinguished Tar
Heel Senator on the floor Of the Sen
ate.
If the object Of the friends of this
portion Of the bill is sincerely to re-
lieve the determinations upon the in
dividual whose shipment is called a
short haul, / cannot see why they are
not content to let we'll enough alone.
The language in the fourth section of
the bill as reported by the committee,
that it shall be unlawful for any COM
mon carrier to charge or receive any
greater compensation in the aggregate
for the transportation of passengers
or property subject to the provisions
of this act for a shorter than a long
er haul over the same line in the same
direction is just as explicit as lang
uaSe can be made. Everybody would
understand it, and there would be no
mistaking 1t by courts or railroad
properties.
But when you come in to insert
under substantially similar ircum-
stances and conditions you simply
open a gap through which in less time
than we have taken in the passage OF
this bill, the railroad companies will
drive not only a coach and six, but an
engine with forty ears. That will be
the effect Of it.
How can the conditions be substan-
TALLY similar, if one lot Of freight is
shipped 500 miles and another is
shipped 1000 miles? What do you
mean by that? How cal the circu1n-
stances be similar when the articles
are dissimilar, when h distance Is
dissimilar and when the amount of
service rendered by the carrier is dis
similar?
CT do not imDugn men motives.
am not in the habit of doing SO; but
it seems to me that if we are in dead
earnest II we are not trying to de-
ceive the people by throwing a tub to
the whale, when We have Incorporated
language Which serves our purpose we
should stop and not put in any Ian
guage that woul enable somebod
to hang a doubt upon it, or be pervert-
ing the Interpretation avoid the true
intent and meaning Of the act"
1t will be observed hat the i'm
mortal Vance In the hey day Of his
success at the National Capitol. a
generation ago, knew as much, if not
more, tina do some statesmen of the
present a and time about the So
called long and short haul amendment.
Vance, in his day and time. was afraid
OF language, the cloak SO frequently
employed by great interests in the
present day n time to nulifv meri-
torfous legislation.
The speech Of Senator Vance. nro-
phesying the destruction of the lone
and short haul amendment as the re
suit OF the words that it is now gen
was called to my attention by senator
Dl3on, OF Montana. who is a native
North Carolinian. Senator Dixon ad
nuts. as does who has
stuqled n public life of Vance, that
the great C%arclinian continues to grow
~