The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-04-02
Against Proposition to Strike
Down State Railroad Rates
WANT BOUNDARIES INTACT
Governors Protested in a Body to Su-
preme Court of the United States
for the First Time in the His
tory of the Nation.

|
dav afternoon filed their solemn pro.
test with the supreme court of the
United States against the proposition
to strike down state railroad rates as
interfering with interstate commerce
They respectfully called upon the bench
having in especially charge the covenant
of the Union" to see that the bounaries
of the states remain. 1t was the first
time in the history of the nation that
such a protest has been made.
The protest took the nature OF a
brief, led as friends of the court" by
a committee of governors, Judson Har-
mon Of Ohio; Herbert S. Hadley OF Mis-
souri, and Charles II. Aldrich Of Ne
braska. This committee was selected at
conference of governors last Septem
Der The chief was submitted in con
necton with the state rate cases. set
! for oral argument yesterday.
The brief was of peculiar interest,
coming so soon after the most recent
| decision of the interstate commerce COM
mission that railroads submitting to low
state rates, must give similar rates on
| interstate business.
| Because the federal circuit court in
the Minnesota freight and passenger rate
cases held the rates invalid not only
as confiscatory, but by reason of their
| effect on interstate commerce, that case
was taken as the text for the gov
errors protest. II was declared that
what was said went directly to the
right OF every state to regulate state
commerce, and was designed particular
| L.. H. IA tr
Missouri, Oregon, Kentucky, Ohio, Ar
kansas and West Virginia rate cases be-
| for, the court. The governors had moth
| ing to say about the confiscatory nature
of the rates, but confined themselves
to the interstate phase of the question
| The committee of governors set forth
| the claim that because Minnesota had
| required the railroads to reduce their
rates from such cities as st. Paul Mimi,
to Duluth, Mimi, on the state boundary.
! the interstate business OF the railroads
from ST. Paul to Superior. Wis, just
across the line from Duluth, had been
affected Similar conditions, it was stat
ed were to be found in Kansas City
Kan, and Kansas City, Mo; East st.
Louis, ILL.,, and ST. Louis. Mo-; Omaha
Neb., and Council Bluffs Iowa; Cinein-
neti. Ohio; ana Coyington and Newport,
Ky
The vice Of the Minnesota decision,
it was urged, was not in an incorrect
statement of Minnesota geography, but
in the plain disregard for the provisions
of the federal constitution, which estab
lished the relation Of the nation and
the states by giving one control over in
r1J
over state affairs. il was admitted
that there might be some effect on in
terstate commerce when states regulate
state rates but il was asserted time
and again in the brief that if railroad
enjoys reasonable return under state
rates. it enjoys every right to which it
is entitled
"The test cannot be, declare the gov
errors. whether the effect of fixing the
local rates may or will be to lead the
railroads to lower their interstate rates.
but whether the local rates are fair and
reasonable, for if they are so and the
sum of them is so much lower than the
Interstate rates as to lead shippers to
take the trouble and risk of rebilling
or reshipping at state lines, this is a
perfectly lawful condition the advantage
Of which the public is entitled to en-
Joy. And as the cost and convenience
OF carriage in that way can be no less,
but as is well known, would rather be
greater, the advantage would remain
with the through rate even if it were re-
duced so as to equal the sum of the To-
cal rates The railroads cannot invoke
the commerce clause of the federal con-
20 oh al 80
fair and rea sonable rates fixed by
state for its own internal business. The
effect of these on interstate rates is not
only incidental and indirect but also
legitimate under the dual form of gov
eminent through which we enjoy hap
piness and prosperity beyond compare
"lf the local rates as reduced by Min
nesota are still fair and the reduction
leads the railroads to lower through
rates spondingly, then interstate
commerce will have been relieved of
burden instead of having one i'm
posed on it and this would be accom-
pished not directly by the states regrl-
lation of its own commerce but midi.
rectly bv the action of the railroads
themselves which would be only Just
and right
Testing the Minnesota decision by it,
consequences, the governors declared that
it was plain that the inevitable effect
Of the idea that business necessities,
peculiar location of lines of transporta-
ton and of commercial centers can make
an act of state regulating its local
rites a regulation of Interstate rates
and therefore invalid would he the de-
stTuction Of the state control over its
own affairs.
THE right of state regulation extends
to every business conducted within its
borders. though such business may also
extend into interstate commerce. Any
act regulating or affecting an enter
Prise having an interstate character nee |
essarily affects the conditions under |
which it completes with like enterprises |
carried on IN other states. This will |
apply to telephones, telegraphs, natural |
gas and oil companies and many other |
And the passage Of law |
regulating the hours Of labor within |
one state might make it difficult or i'm |
possible for its corporations or citizens |
to compete successfully with those en- |
gagged in the same business in other |
states where no such regulation exists |
The same condition would arise from |
the passage OF workman's compensa- |
ton law. or q law changing the liabil- |
inv of employers in one state. when 9TH |
err states have no such laws or different |
ones.
"If the doctrine is to he that the
4 l.. IL fT,l