The Sentinel=record., 1911-10-31
KILL STATE '. II T
 COMMISSIONS
SUPREME COURT DECISION WILL PROBABLY END ALL STATE
 RAILROAD ssloNs.
Commissioner Lane Says it Means That Dual Control of Railways Will Soon be at An
 End.

Washington. D. C., Oct. 20. -- Complete control of all the railroads of the country by the Interstate i Commerce Commission and tviNual elimination of the state commissions Il from such control Is foreshadowed in an opinion handed down today bg | the Supreme Court of the United States. The court held that here after all locomotives, cars or otler equipment used on any railroad which is a highway of interstate commerce must comply with the federal safety appliance act.
 The covrt held that compliance with federal law is compulsory on lall railroads engaged in the transpor- tation of persons or freight from one state to another. Elaborating this, however, 1t held that the cars or the equipment ofsuch roads, even If en- gagged in such transportation within the confines of state. must be con- sidered as part and parcel of the iroad and therefore completely under the iurisdistion of the federal com mission.
 Members Of the Interstate Com merce Commission who have been embarrassed on numerous occasions by clashes of authority with tate commissioners are jubiIant at the ruling of the Supreme court, which was unanimous.
 Referring to the courts opinion Commissioner Franklin K. Lane de- clared
 It means eventually that there Is to be nc dual control of interstate carriers 7,
 The determination of this moot question was laid down in the opin ion read by Justice Vandervanter in case instituted by the government against the Southern Railway. The point at issue was whether the fed eral act applied in the case of a shipment from one point in Alabama to another point in the same state the shipment being in an improperly equipped car. The lower court held there had been a violation of the law and their judgment was sustained.
 Justice vandeventer held the law applied to all equipment on a high. way of interstate commerce wheth' CT at the time it was carrying inter- state or intra state commerce. He then held-and was sustained by the courts unanimous opinion--that the safety appliance act was constitu- tional.
 Speaking only of railroads which are highways of both interstate and intra-state commerce., says Justice vandeventer, these things are oi common knowledge:
 Both classes of traffic at times are carried in the same car and wher this is not the case the cars in whicl Ithey are carried are frequently co mingled in the same train and 1T the switching and other movements lat terminals.
 "Cars are seldom set apart for ex. Iclusive use in moving other class O traffic, but generally are used inter changeably in moving both; and th' Estimation is much the same with th' IItrainmen, switchmen and like em. lployes for they usually, if not neces lsarily, have to do with both classei lof traffic. Besides the several traini
 on the railroads are not Independen lin point of movement and safety but are nter-dependent, for what lever brings delay er disaster to on,
 Tor result in disabling one Of it's op
 eratiyes, is calculated to impede tn lprogress and imperil. the safety O
 other trains. And so the absence o
 appropriate safety appliances from Ipart of any trains is a menace no
 only to that train, but to others"
 The decision of the court general Ily is regarded ss of far-reaching sig . lnificance and importance. t will en
 able the commission hereafter to en force practically without question if lorders based upon that law.
 Those who casually examined tn
 opinion were divided as to it's bear : ling on tfhe litigation as to whether state may regulate freight and pas 3 lsenger rates on intra- state traffl lwhen such regulation interferes Q