The Sentinel=record., 1914-06-09
ONE MASTER
 FOR RAILROADS
SUPREME COURT RENDERS lM- PORTANT DECISION AFFECT
 ING LEGISLATION.
CURTAILMENT STATES POWER
Recent Decision in the State Rate Cases Might Have Been Decided Otherwise Had the Roads Gone to the Commission For Relief.

Washington, D. C.. June S.--A long step toward placing railroads under one master instead of many" was taken today by the United States su- preme court in upholding the power Of the interstate commerce commis- sion to strike down state rates that discriminate against interstate com merce. In substance, the court said that the Minnesota and other recent state cases in which the railroads lost might have been decided other wise had the roads gone to the com mission for relief instead of the courts
 The decision was announced by Justice Hughes, Justices Pitney and I.urton dissenting. The ease arose out of complaint by Shreveport Q.a.) merchants that the Texas railroad commission had shut them out of all Texas business by compelling the railroads to reduce Texas state rates far below what the Interstate Com merce Commission allowed the rail roads running from Shreveport to Texas cities to charge.
 The court first decided that con 4ress had power to control interstate charges over an interstate carrier to the extent necessary to prevent in- | iurious discriminations against inter- state traffic, and then held that con- gress had conferred this power upon the Interstate Commerce Commission.
 "Ine fact that carriers are instru- ments of intrastate commerce as we'll as of interstate commerce., said Jus l tice Hughes, does not derogate from | the complete and paramount author ity of congress over the latter or pre- olude the federal power from being eNerted to prevent the intrastate op- erations of such carriers from being made a means of injury to that which has been confided to federal care. Wherever the interstate and intrastate transactions of carriers are SO related that the government of one involves the control of the other it is congress and not the state that ia entitled to prescribe the final and dominant rule, for otherwise congress would be denied the exercise of it's constitutional authority and the state, not the nation, would be SUI preme within the national field"
 In removing determinations against interstate commerce, the court held congress wss not bound to reduce the interstate rates below
 what it may deem to be q proper standard to the carrier and the public.
 Otherwise" said the opinion, "it could prevent the injury to interstate commerce only by the sacrifice of it's ! judgment as to interstate rates." Justice Hughes, who wrote the courts decision in the state rate cases of a year ago pointed out that the present case did not conflict with those cases. He said that in the ab- sence of a finding by the commission of unjust discrimination intrastate rates undoubtedly were left to be fixed by the carrier and subject to the authority of the states We are not unmindfui of the gravity of the question that is pre- | scented when state and federal views conflict the opinion concluded.
 But it was recognized at the begi.-
 ming the nation could not prosper if ! interstate and foreign trade were | governed by many masters, and i where the interests of the freedom
 of interstate commerce are involved
 the judgment of congress and of the agencies it lawfully establishes must
 control
 Members of the interstate com
 merce commission regarded this case
 as one of the most important in
 which the body ever has been in
 volyeG,
 i fhe aecision was written by Secre-
 tary Lare before he left the commits sion to become a member of the presidents cabinet.