The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-28

not have been reversed by placing ths Alabama Great Southern in Class 1 and the Western railway In Class 2
 As said by the supreme court of Penn sylvania:
 ''The presumption In favor of the
 prescribed rate Is no more than the
 ordinary presumption in favor of tho
 constitutionality of acts of the assem-
 bly, It has no special strength or
 sanctity, and in view of the public
 history of the passage of act of 1907
 without Investigation and in obedience
 to a popular agitation it might
 be well said that very slight evidence
 would rebut the presumption in this
 case. Pennsylvania R. R. Co. ys.
 Philadelphia County. 6S Att 676. 679.i
 l concur with the special master that the "conclusion seems irresistible, espe- cialy in the absence from the pleadings and testimony of any fact or facts point ing to n different conclusion, that the classification of the different roads in Ala bama by statute and by the railroad com mission acting for the state was made with reference to its influence and effect upon certain administrative policies in correction with the enforcement of tho statutes in Alabama regulating rates and railroads, rather than upon kany ground or grounds of classification having proper and actual relation to the subject" COURTS CANNOT BEND THEIR JUDG- MENTS TO FIT POLITICAL EXGIEN- | GEES.
 | While it has been necessary in passing upon the clasifications to recite the hls- tory of the litigation and the situations resulting from 1t, because the classifiea- tions were evolved from them, the court has no desire to comment upon them otherwise. Perhaps at this distance from tho events of those days, no one will in- slst, as was then insisted, that the orderly operation of the constitution of the fahr CTS. the supreme law of the land "any1 thing In the constitution or laws Of any state to the contrary notwithstanding" Is menace 10 the peace and happiness of Alabama, or that the federal court de- tracted from her rights and lnsulted her sovereignty, or intermeddled with her lo- ca affairs, because 1t entertained a conn plaint of deprivation of property without due process, at the instance of citizens of this and other states, or that suitors in It's portals deserved condemnation as vio- lators of the law for testing, in the courts Of the country, the validity of statutes concerning their property rights, or that | the court Itself merited execration hy ser wants of the state, because 1t administered | the law of the land. according to the con- l stant teachings of that august tribunal
 which Is the arbiter of the boundaries be- tween state~and federal power. If any
 there he who still maintain such beliefs. l 10 AVdili III iHt WOfuS or IfDfQ | Mansfield
 | "The constitution does not allow | reasons of state to influence our iudR- ments God forbid 1t shoudl We must not regard political consequences how formidable soever they might be; if rebellion was the certain consequence.
 we are bound to say. Fiat justitia
 ruat coelum' We are to say what we
 take the law to be; if we do not speak our real opinions we prevarlcate with
 God, and our ovn epnsciences." 1t results from what has been said that the respective exceptions of the parties to the masters reports must be oyerruled and the reports confirmed, and that d. per- petual injunction issue against the en- forcement of the statutes complained of with leave to the defendants when the circumstances change so that the rates involved fin this case shall yield to the compliments reasonable compensation, to apply to the court by petition or other- wise for further order In that behalf" and to that end, and for that purpose, the court retains Jurisdiction of the causes. --Smyth vs. Ames. supra b50. Counsel may prepare and present drafts Of decrees in conformity with this opin- ion.