The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-05-07
STATES HAVE BEGUN
ARGUMENT TO VOID
INTERSTATE RATES
Court Asked to Overthrow
Road and Telephone
Charges
USURPED AUTHORITY
If States Win All the Excess Charges
Will Have to Be Returned by
Government
USURPED AUTHORITY

Ihlrty-elght states, including new
York, in the supreme court of the
United States have undertaken to
overturn the legal right which the
railroad Administrator has assumed
of making intrastate rates. At the
same time the states have undertaken
to fight the right of Postmaster Gem
eral Burleson to fix telephone and tel
egraph intrastate charges.
The case involves the entire struc-
ture of the act giving the railroad,
telephone and telegraph lines over to
the government under the guise of
war necessity and the findings un-
doubtedly will find their reflection in
the railroad legislation to be enacted
by congress.
The railroad cases, involving ST.
000,000,000 year collected by the
government, were argued fully, while
the arguments in the telephone and
telegraph cases were only begun.
The fight against the right of the
Railroad Administration to fix intra-
state rates. came up from North Da-
kota and the argument was presented
by Frank E. Packard, Assistant At
torney General of North Dakota.
Through the National Association
of Utilities Commissions, of which
Charles Elmquist is president, 81
other states have joined. They were
represented through their attorneys
General or members of the Railroad
Commissions.
When William G. McAdoo, as Di-
rector General of Railroads, increased
the passenger rates SO per cent and
the freight rates 25 per cent, North
Dakota objected to the application
of these increases to intrastate rates.
on the ground that the law provides
all intrastate rates shall first be pre-
sented to the State Railroad and
Warehouse Commission. This was
not done, all State commissions and
the powers of the states being ignor-
ed by the Director General. The
case went to the Supreme Court of
North Dakota and comes to the
United States Supreme Court on ap-
peal by the Railroad Administration.
The states opposing the position of
the government, which was presented
by John Barton Payne, maintain that
this proviso reserving to the States
the rights of taxation and of police
power should be read and that rate
fixing is part of the police power of
the state.
Should the Supreme court sustain
the action brought by North Dakota,
the government will be called upon
to repay to shippers 25 per cent of
the rates collected on freight and so
per cent of the passenger rates where
the rates have been increased to that
extent, on all interstate traffic. John
Barton Payne stated that this would
amount to $2,000,000,00
The telephone cases are similar in
character. They come from the
States of Massachusetts, Kansas, So.
Dakota and Illinois. The argument
in the cases will be similar, the only
difference being that of language, the
language of the telephone act being
less explicit than that of the railroad
act, and the right of the government
to be sued is not waived. In South
Dakota, Kansas and Illinois the courts
have upheld the contention of the
States, while in Massachusetts, the
point of the right of the government
to resist legal action has been raised.