Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-04-03
GOVERNORS
PROTEST TO
HIGH COURTS
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
WASHINGTON, April 3-The gov.
errors of the states as body filed
their solemn protest with the supreme
court of the United tSates against the
proposition to strike down state rail.
road rates as interfering with inter
state 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 protest had been made.
The protest took the nature of a
brief, filed as friends of the court"
by committee Of governors, Judson
Harmon of Ohio, Herbert S. Hadley of
Missouri and Charles H. Aldrich of
Nebraska. This committee was Sc
lected at a conference of governors
last September. The brief was sub
mitted in connection with the Estate
rate cases." set for oral argument to-
day.
The brief was of peculiar interest
coming so soon after. the most recent
decision of the interstate commerce
commission 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 teld the rates invalid not
only as confiscatory but by reason of
their effect ON interstatet commerce,
that case was taken as the text for
the governors protest. 1t was de-
clared that what was said went direct
ly to the right of every state to regu'
late state commerce, and was de-
signed particularly to be applicable to
the Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Ken
lucky, Ohio Arkansas and West
Virginia rate cases before the court.
The governors had nothing 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 Minneso-
ia has required the railroads to re-
duce their rates from such cities as
St. Paul, Mimi, to Duluth, Mimi, on
the state boundary the interstate bust.
ness of the railroads from St. Paul
to Superior, Wis. just across the Line
from Duluth, hal been affected
Similar conditions, It was stated, 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, 10 a; Cincinnati, Ohio,
and Covington and Newport, KY. The
vice of the Minnesota decisions, it
was urged, was not in an incorrect
statement of Minnesota geography
bu in the plain disregard of the pro-
visions of the federal constitution,
which established the relation of the
nation and the states by giving one
control over interstate matters and
the other control over state affairs.
1t was admitted that there might be
some effect on enters ate commerce
when the states regulate state rates,
but it was asserted time and again in
the brief that it a railroad enjoys a
reasonable return under state rates,
it enjoys every right to which it is
entitled.
''The test cannot be-" declared the
governors, whether the effect Of fix
ing the local rates may or will be to
lead the railroads to lower their inter.
state rates, but whether the local
rates are fair and reasonable, for If
they are so and the sum of them Is
50 much lower than the interstate
rates as to lead shippers to take the
trouble and risk Of rebilling or reship-
ping at state lines, this is perfectly
lawful condition Of advantage OF
which the public is entitled to enjoy.