The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-06-13
MINNESOTA WINS
STATE RATE SUIT
Supreme Court Gives Right to
Limit Rail Charges.
FAVORS THE TW0-CENT FARE
Part of Law Is Held to Be Constitu-
tional i'm Unanimous Decision
Turpentine Trust Is
Victorious.

\, lshington, June 1.-THE power
Of the states to fix reasonable intra-
state rates on interstate railroads, uu-
til such time as congress shall choose
TO regulate these rates, was upheld
by the Supreme court of the United
States in the Minnesota freight and
passenger rate cases Monday.
At the same time the court laid
down far-reaching principles govern
ing the valuation of railroad property
for rate making purposes and, accord
ing to these, held that the state of
Minnesota would confiscate the prop
erty Of the Minneapolis & st. Louis
Railroad company by it's maximum
freight and two-cent passenger fare
Law. 1t enjoined the state from en-
forcing these laws as to this road for
the present.
The so-called state rate" cases have
presented to the Supreme court one of
the momentous problems of the dec
ade
In general terms, this group of cases
called upon the court to decide two
questions. One was whether the states
in passing maximum freight and two
cent passenger laws had unduly inter
fered with interstate commerce. The
other was whether those laws confis-
Gated the property of the railroads by
requiring them to transact business at
a loss.
The group consisted Of As cases. All
arose out of legislation enacted by
state legislature about 1907, or just
after the federal government had
passed the Hepburn rate law. The 45
cases concerned directly the laws IL
six states-Missouri, Minnesota, Ken
lucky, Oregon, Arkansas and West Vlr-
ginia. Similar litigation arose in Ala
bama, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Okla
homa and South Dakota. In all, it was
said that rs suits in federal courts de-
pended upon the decision in the As
cases before the Supreme court.
The Minnesota cases arose out of
suits by stockholders of the Northern
Pacific, the Great Northern and the
Minneapolis & ST. Louis railroads
against the companies to enjoin them
from obeying the maximum freight and
two-cent passenger laws as unconsti-
tutional, and against the state officials
to enjoin them from enforcing the
laws. Judge Sanborn of the United
States circuit court for Minnesota held
the laws unconstitutional, of confis-
catory nature, and that they burdened
interstate commerce. The three suits
were appealed to the Supreme court.
Convictions of five fficials of the
American Naval Stores company at
Savannah-the so-called turpentine
trust-for criminal violation of the
Sherman law were set aside by the Su
preme court because of an erroneous
instruction of the trial Judge. Justice
Pitney was the only dissenter from the
opinion.
Officials of the department of JUS
generally /unfavorable to the criminal
section of the Sherman law. They
never considered that they had a
strong case.
Holding that one shipper cannot sue
for rebates as damages because com
petitors received rebates, the Supreme
court reversed the decision of the
Pennsylvania courts awarding to the
International Coal Mining company of
the Clearfield region of Pennsylvania
Judgment of $4,000 against the Penn
sylvania railroad Justice Pitney, dis
senting, declared the decision practi-
cally annulled the right Of the shippers
to sue for damages conferred by recent
legislation. leaving a right to sue only
in the almost negligible instances
where the goods Of a shipper came into
competition with competitors who re-
ceived rebates