The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-09-14
CALLS IT A TAX.
Tribute Paid by the American
People to Railroads
Discussed by Hadley at the Con-
ference of Governors.
UP TO SUPREME COURT
Te Limit the Power of the
Transportation Lines
Or Leave the People at Their
Mercy, He Says.

Spring Lake, N. J., Sept. 14.-Gov-
ernor Hadley in an address before the
conference o. governors today said:
The question as to the right to regu-
late within their limits the rates of
transportation of railroad companies
engaged in interstate commer which
is now pending before the supreme
court of the United States for decision,
is. in my opinion, one OF the most i'm
portant ii not the most important,
question with which that court has
had to deal in recent years. For the
question of transportation is the most
important question of commerce and,
in fact, of civilization itself.
Approximately one-third of the cost
of everything we buy represents the
expense of transportation and this
question enters as controlling influ-
ence into the success or failure of
every single human life.
Manifestly, it is through the rail-
roads of the country that the life blood
of it's commerce flows. And those who
have the power and by virtue of the
power exercise the privilege of con-
trolling the means and determining the
rates of trans portation have the power
and exercise the privilege of 1evying g
tribute upon the labor and the frugal
ity of the people whom they serve.
And the experience of the American
people has shown that it can not be
safely left to those who control the
operation of these great enterprises to
fix the rates of transportation free
from the regulation of effective com
petition of the superior authorities Of
governmental control.
The right of the states to regulate
the transportation in intraState COM
merce is now vigorously denied, for the
reason that it is claimed that the fix
ing of rates in intrastate commerce of
necessity determines or, at least, di-
rectly affects the rates of transporta-
ton in interstate comm cree. This con-
tention has but recently been sus-
tanned by the United States circuit
court for the district of Minnesota, in
a decision known as the Minnesota rate
cases.
Set For Reargument.
a number of cases involving the
reasonab bleness, and therefore, the
constitutionality of the acts of the sew
eral states, or orders of their boards
of railroad commissioners, fixing
maximum rates for passenger and
freight traffic, were pending before
the supreme court of the United
States at the time this decision was
rendered. In all of these cases the
same contention had been made in the
circuit court as was advanced and
sustained by Judge Sanborn in the
Minnesota rate cases. Following the
decision of Judge Sanborn, the sub
mission of these cases pending in the
supreme court of the United States
which had already been argued and
submitted. was set aside, and they
were set down again for argument at
the October term of that court.
Whether the decision in the Minnesota.
rate cases was the cause of this ac-
ton Of the supreme court is, of course,
only a matter of conjecture. But dur
ing the coming term of the supreme
court there will be heard cases aris-
ing out of controversies between
number of the states and the railroads
doing business therein as to the con-
stitutionality of maximum freight and
passenger rate laws, in each of which