Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-04-02

state for it's own internal business.
The effect of these on interstate rates
is not only incidental and indirect but
also legitimate under the dual form
of government through which we en-
Joy happiness and prosperity beyond
compare.
III the local rates as reduced by
Minnesota are still fair and the reduc-
ton leads the railroads to lower
through rates correspondingly. then
interstate commerce will have been
relieved of burden instead Of having
One imposed on 1t; and this would be
accomplished not directly by the state
regulation of it's own commerce but
Indirectly by the action of the railroads
themselves which would be only just
and right"
Would Destroy State Control.
Testing the Minnesota decision by
it's consequences, the governors declar-
ed that it was plain that the inevitable
effect of the idea that business neces-
sites, peculiar location of lines OF
transportation and of commercial cen
tiers can make an act of state regu-
lating it's local rates regulation OF
would be the destruction of the state
control over it's own affairs.
1.-THE right of state regulation ex.
tends to every business conducted
within it's borders, though such bust
ness may also extend into Interstate
commerce. Any act regulating or al
fecting an enterprise having an inter-
state character necessarily affects the
conditions under which it completes
with like enterprises carried on IN 9TH
er states. This will apply to tele.
phones, telegraphs, natural gas and oil
companies and many other enter
prises. And the passage Of law re-
gulating the hours Of labor within one
state might make it difficult or impos-
sible for it's corporations of citizens
| to compete successfully with those
engaged in the same business in other
states where no such regulation ex-
lists. The same condition would arise
from the passage Of workman's COM
pensation law, or a law changing the
liability Of employers in one. state,
when other states have no such laws
or different ones.
IF the doctrine is to be that laws
of trade may make the performance OF
lawful duty by state in the regula'
ton Of corporations doing business
therein a regulation Of interstate CON-
merce, who is to prescribe the test or
rule for applying it? Or shall We go to
the logical conclusion that the laws or
trade are higher than the constitution
and must prevail without regard to the
directness or extent of real or fancied
interference with their full operation
and effect?'
Issue is States vs.. Roads.
In concluding the governors declar'
ed that the rate cases involved no con-
fict between state and federal author
ity, but controversy between the
states and the railroads.
mo one contends that congress
could exercise any control over the
purely internal commerce Of the
states" it was asserted. "The effect
Of the decision is. not to take power
from the states and leave 1t with con
gress, but to take power from the
states and leave the railroads free to
charge whatever rates they please in
their traffic within the states. for If
the states cannot regulate these rates
nobody can. B..
"The fourteenth amendment pro-
tects the rights of carriers from inva
sion under the guise Of regulation by
either state or nation. It Is not al
a-J too Ero w con.