Arizona republican., 1918-12-15

biased thelr judgments ana warped 1 their understandings to such an extent | that they could never be made to see the obliquities and iniquities of many of the present rate adjustments and | rate relationships. An analytical study | of the various freight tariffs which i name through rates from eastern pro- | ducing points to western, middle west ern, northwestern, or southwestern | distributing or consuming points will i disclose that many of the rate struc- lures have been erected for the benefit of particular localities, that in innu- merabe instances commodity rates have been established for the benefit of particular trusts, and that carload l mixtures have been arranged for the benefit of particular joDbers. Though the Act to Regulate Commerce and many state statutes were designed to destroy the preferences and advantages which result from the manipulation of rates, discrimination and kindred con- mercial evils are as prevalent today as they were before the inhibitions and interdirections against them were given legislative expression. If the law has not been effectual in the removal of these cancerouS growths it is folly to think that an appeal to the men who brought them into being and who are directly responsible for their existence will be productive of a result which the law has failed to accomplish
 That the federal government, in or der to secure priority and the utmost facility in the movement of troops. mu- nitions, supplies. and impedimenta
 during our preparations for and in the
 prosecution of the war. had the abso- lute right to assume control of the ma tion's transportation systems is un- questioned; but that it has the exclu- sive right to regulate and prescribe rates for such commercial trasporta- ton as remains after the governments needs have been fully satisfied is a very different matter; and after weigh ing carefully the proviso contained in the Overman Act, which expressly re- serves to the states the right to exer- else their necessary and accustomed police powers when such powers do not conflict with or derogate from the power therein granted to the federal government, we are impelled to the
 conclusion that, with respect to such
 residue of transportation, congress in- tended that the federal government
 should act simply as the agent of the
 railroad stockholders, the regulatory | power of the states with respect to purely intrastate commercial transpor- tation remaining undisturbed and un-
 impaired.
 That congress did not intend to clothe the president with the power 10 indscriminately initiate or increase rates should be aparent when we stop
 to consider the scope and obvious in tent of the several war measures. Dis 1 cussion of the Overman bill in the senate 1 indicates clearly that the authority | mt Qd tn fpit t,I-t
 rates was to be exercised only in cases
 of real and pressing emergency; such 1 emergencies as might result from cir
 cumstances or exigencies arising di- rectly from the war, but not such as were merely incidental or collateral to l the prosecution of it. As ample provi- ! sion had already been made for the 1 betterment and rehabilitation of such properties as were found to have fallen 1 below the recognized standards of ef- 1 ficiency, as well as for those which
 might become useless or impaired dur | ing the period of governmental con- | trol; and as no justification had been | publicly assigned for it, the horizontal | increase Of 25 per cent, put into effect l on both interstate and intrastate
 freight traffic on every railroad in the
 United States by fiat of the United
 States railroad administration, without l the formality of public hearing, with
 out the advice or consent of the several i states and against the protest of the l shipping public, will go down in the an- nals of our history as an arbitrary eX-
 ercise of power, wanton and reckless
 disregard of popular rights and consti- tutional guarantees, and an unparal- led departure from the great principles
 of democracy upon which the Union
 was founded.
 In the creation of public utility com
 missions the constitutions and statutes of the several states invariably pre-
 scribe the manner in which rate in- | creases shall be initiated. One prin-
 ciple which they invariably possess is
 that the applicant must justify the ne-
 cessity for the increase by a showing
 made at a public hearing. Prior to the
 passage of the Act oRegulate Com
 merce there wa snO federal law to pre-
 vent carriers from increasing interstate
 rates; but now, according to the letter
 of the law not according to the ad-
 ministration of it-increases in inter-
 state rates are required to be accom-
 plished in practically the same manner
 as the state laws prescribe for the in
 crease in intrastate rates. That meth .
 cd of procedure is perhaps the greatest
 safeguard which human ingenuity could devise to prevent incompetent or venal commissions from granting, eS parte, rate increases of doubtful or questionable propriety.
 That the railroads of this country have assiduously and deterrninedly fought and resisted this species of reg ulation is a matter of common knowl- edge. That they have resorted to every artifice and stratagem in the category of chicanery to diminish or destroy tho regulatory powers of state commission. is notorious; and when our country confronted with the stern reality o. l having to engage in a war of indefinit, duration, strove, through congress an( the president, to bring about such l coordination of its instrumentalitie! and resources as was necessary and in. dispensable to the winning of it, they were the first to break down, it bein, the general impression that in order t,
 embarrass and discredit the govern ment in itS operation of their proper
 ties they deliberately laid down; an, now, afte rhaving been coddled an, pampered and converted into a quasi
 governmental agency, they have tn ' audacity and insolence to appear at
 public hearing and contend that tn
 creation of the United States raiIroa,
 administration automatically diveste, the state of Arizona of its power t prevent them from giving Armour am company an undue preference and ad vantage over the Maricopa Creamer company in the sale and distribution o condensed milk at points within th state of Arizona.
 That the action of the United State II D ;yie ,,,y