The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-12


 rates were too low, and that the pas | senger rate of PIE cents per mile was | insufficient. He made a adeewith the | Southern railway. which he caused the | railroad commission to ratify. that it and other railroads which acceded to his terms, might charge somewhat higher freight rates, and also 2A cents
 instead of # cents per mile for pas sengers. Notwithstanding all this, the governor soon began to attack, and to inspire attacks upon the court and the judge because of the issuance of those preliminary injunctions Many months after they were granted the attorney general. mindful, very properly, of the duty of attorneys to protect courts against unjust criticism and popular clamor," declared In open court, Tt Is nothning but fair and proper that Il should state that this court cannot be fairly made the subject of adverse criti cism, or of any criticism for its action on May 8, in granting these original linjunctions, under the circumstances that existed at that time.'
 Copying a Bad Example
 | For nearly three months after the granting of the first preliminary in l Junction, there was acquiescence in tho | jurisdiction of the court. and appar- l ent acquiescence in the trial of the suits as mere jaw. suits In the usual way. Governor Conner. however, was still vociferating about the crimes | the litigants were daily committing against the laws of Alabama by com | ing into a court of the fathers, and 1 conducting their business under It's protection; and still preaching that the l federal courts insulted the rights and
 dignity of the state by entertaining l the bills at all though he well knew no court could thrust suitor out of Cn 1t1la a n
 which that court has jurisdiction to de- termine and redress. Whatever his se- l cret thoughts. outwardly, at least, he l had resolved to respect the laws or his country; and his oath to support l the constitution. until the governor of | North Carolina drove the Southern railway out of the federal court, by
 threats of ruin to its business and the tender to state officials of the armed l force of North Carolina to prevent the 1 enforcement of the courts orders for l that company's protection. Then Gov l ernpr Conner saw visions of the great | CT fame which would await him when, l on much grander scale. in full view of | the American people, he would throt-
 tie court of his country and bring
 the itigants in 1t .cringing to his feet. | He had read the history of his country
 to so little purpose and was so ignorz | ant of the devotion of the people st O.
 the institutions of the fathers, that he believed 1t was, true. as was so indus-s
 triously reported at the time, that the president had forgotten his oath in.
 North Carolina. and would abandon, the court here and the suitors who 1 sought its protection to the fury of a governor, if he chose to assault them with armed violence in the name of
 the state Until almost tfie last mo ment when the momentous issue he
 had raised appalled, him. he was bent
 on force to prevent the trial of the cases in the Federal court.
 Rebellion" of Southern Railway In August, 1907, the Southern railway removed 8 suit from the state court to | the federal court here. Thereupon, un l der color of an act, whose companion statute, as we have seen, had been de- clared unconstitutional by the circuit court here, and by the supreme court | of the United States. Governor Co., | mer insisted that the Southern railway had forfeited its further right to do I intrastate business in Alabama, and set 1 up the cry that it was in rebellion against the laws of Alabama because | it continued to run it's trains between I points in Alabama, as 1t was bound to
 do under the constitution of the state, to supply the wants and necessities of
 our people, In one breath the govern or esteemed this statute so holy that | its violation transported him with rage
 because of the insult to the sovereignty of the state, and in the next breath I spurned 1t as too contemptble to fol- l low it's commands, in fixing the terms l of the company's readmission to do bus | mess in Alabama. Not only the South | ern railway, but all the other railroad l litigants became renewed objects of his
 wrath. The wizards warning to Lochiel was not more weird and prophetic of ruin than Corners admoni- tions to the litigants of the destruction which awaited them If they did not inn
 medately accede to his demands. Orgy of Excitement and Passion Ex- cited He began to blaze with threats like volcano in eruption. and the flames of his passion lit up the whole state. The press teemed with his bitter ut terances. His organs constantly de- tended them. Although the statutes in- volved had been suspended in the very mode and purpose provided by the state laws themselves, and, therefore, could not then be violated either in law or morals, and their operation had also been enjoined under the equity powers of the court, the governor continued to denounce the litigants as fragrant crim- inals "who had placed themselves in definance of the laws of the state," and
  themselves outside the sympathy of its laws" by seeking an injunction in the federal court. He loudly proclaimed, and repeated his purpose. ito charge ev- | cry officer of the state to arrest and | imprison the officers and operatives of
 the roads just as they would negro craps shooter" He denounced men,
 merely for going into the court for
 the very purpose and in the very man
 ner invited by the states own laws with the vile epithet of "scallawag." He l vaunted his purpose to use the whole
 power of the state to punish these criminals who were splitting on the I right of the state to control its local
 affairs" and .outraging 1t by the ex-.
 ercise of right sacred and secured to l the humblest in the land. to resort to l the courts of his country to test the
 validity of exactions made of him in the
 name of the law.