The Cairo bulletin., 1912-04-02
Call Supreme Court Order Uncon'tl-
tutional, Because it Effects
State Rates
AMENDMENT IS PROTECTION
Fourteenth Addition to Constitution
Protects Roads from Coniiscatory
Reductions

Washington, April 1.-The gov
ernors of the states as body To-Day
fled their solemn protest with the
Supreme Court Of the United states
against the proposition to strike
down state railroad rates as inter-
fering with interstate commerce.
They respectfully called upon the
bench, having in especial charge
the Covenant of the Union TO see
that the boundaries Of the states
remain. 1t was the first time In
the history of the nation that such
a protest had been made.
The protest took the nature OF a
brief, filed as friends of the court
by a committee of governors, Judson
Harmon, of Ohio; Herbert s. Had
lev, Of Missouri and Charles IL. AID
rich, of Nebraska This committee
was selected at a conference OF gov
eronrs last September The briel
was submitted in connection with
the state rate cases" set for oral ar
gument today
The, committee Of governors set
forth the claim chat because Mime
sofa had required the railroads tJ
reduce their rates from such citiel
as ST. Paul. Mimi to Duluth. MINI.
on the state boundary the Interstate
business of the railroads from ST
Paul to Superior, Wis, just across
the line from Duluth. had been af.
feeted. Similar conditions, 1t was
stated, were to be found in Kansas
City, Kan, and Kansas City, Mo.
East St Louis, H., and st. Louis
Mo-; Omaha, Neb., and Council
Bluffs, Ia; Cincinnati, Ohio, and
Covington and Newport, Ky. The
vice Of the Minnesota decision,
was urged, was not in an incorrect
statement of Minnesota geography
but in the plain disregard of the
provisions of the federal constitution
which established the relation of the
nation and the states by giving one
control over interstate matters anc
the other control over state affairs
II was admitted that there might bt
some effect on interstate commerce
when states regulate state rates, bu
It was asserted time and again IL
the brief that If a railroad enjoys
reasonable return under state rates
il enjoys every right to which it J
entitled.
Testing the Minnesota decision b.
its consequences, the governors de
clared that it was plain that the in
evitable effect Of the idea that busl
ness necessities, peculiar location 0
lines of transportation and of com
mercial centers can be made an &C
of a state regulating its local rate
regulation of interstate rates an
therefore invalid, would be the de
atruction of the state control over II
own affairs.
In concluding the governors de
clared that the rate cases involve
no conflict between state and fed
eral authority, but a controvers.
between the states and the rail
roads.
mo one contends that Congres
could exercise any control over tn
purely internal commerce of tn
states" it was asserted. "The et
feet of the decision is not to tax
power from the States and leave
with Congress, but to take powt
from the States and leave the raj
roads free to charge whatever rate
they please in their traffic With
the States, for if the States cannt
regulate these rates nobody can.
"The Fourteenth Amendment pr,
teets the rights of carriers from IL
Fasion under the guise of regulatic
Dy either State or Nation. 1t Is n,
always easy to find the line whit
separates the domain of public a.
thority from that of private righ
But this Is not so hard as it would
to trace the indirect effects of reg
lation by the States and by Congre
back and forth across the bounda
OF their respective jurisdictions. II
boundary itself is plainly marke
We who have to do with administe
Concluded on Page Sikh