The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-17
RESTORE RIGHTS OF
 STATES ID STATES, PLEADS PATTERSON
Traffic Bureau Members Are Urged to Support Sweet Bill Providing for
 Restoration

Birmingham Traffic Bureau present
 at the annual dinner served in the
 Southern club yesterday to press
 upon their representatives in Con
 gress importance of the bills looking
 to restoration of rights of states to
 regulate their intrastate rates was
 made by A. c. Patterson, president of the Alabama public service com
 mission
 Addresses of similar bearing were made by associate commits
 sioners B. H. Cooper and H. P. Gail
 lard.
 According to the speakers, decision
 of the supreme court fin the Wis
 consin case practically wipes out au-
 thority of the state commissions over state transportation service. It is i for the rehabilitation of this author | ity that the Sweet and Hoch bills 1 for amendment of the transportation
 act of 1920 have been introduced in
 Congress and it is these bills in par | ticular which Mir. Patterson and his associates urged shippers to appeal l to their representatives at Washing
 ton have enacted into law. Wisconsin Case Mir. Patterson informed the ship pers that the state had determined not to appeal from decision of the l interstate commerce commission in the Meridian rate case, because the i decision of the supreme court of the
 United States in the Wisconsin case | had eliminated authority of the state missions in such cases.
 President E. Wilkinson presided | Tn his introductory remarks he paid
 a high tribute to Manager O. =.
 Bum and Secretary Charles P. Jones, | to whom he gave credit for excellent results achieved by the Traffic Bu- reau. "The Traffic Bureau has been crowned with success" he said. be
 cause 1t wNs a necessity and has
 been efffcSsntfy managed. The fu- ture," he said. rests with the ship pers of Birmingham. The bureau must have more members and more | funds if 1t is to accomplish what it should achieve"
 Mir. Wilkinson sounded the refrain | of the meeting when he declared that the transportation act of 1920 and It's interpretations by the courts 1 had shorn the state of power over their own transportation affairs and that 1t was high time for the states to speak out in a mass protest. He | particularly deplored the inefficiency 1 of the interstate commerce commis- sion In the matter of rendering jus tice to the south in rate matters be- cause 1t has no member south of the Potomac and east of the Mississippi. He did not see how a member from 1 Oregon could very well decide what should be done in Alabama. work of Bureau Manager o. l.. Bum briefly stated some of the accomplishments of the l bureau, including total savings to members during it's five years of ser
 vice of s652, 900 in discovery of er- | TOTS and collection of claims. But this is smallest part of the work. | said MT. Bum. The Traffic Bureaus | big work is that of securing right
 rates for Birmingham and eliminat- | ing those that discriminate against
 Birmingham. In that line the bureau
 has been particularly effective. MT. Runn said the state utilities commis-
 sion had always acted squarely by
 Birmingham and that he had won all l the 67 cases which he had taken be- | fore that body as manager of the
 bureau.
 Mir. Patterson paid tribute to the
 Traffic Bureau. He said 1t had not l only served Birmingham, but had served and was serving the entire
 state.
 | MT. Patterson then launched into | review of the status created by the l supreme courts decision in the Wis
 consin case and its effect on the | right of Alabama to regulate its | intra-state rates.
 Effect of Decision | "The highest court in the land has
 in effect said to Congress and the interstate commerce commission, in | the language of the street, Go as
 far as you ike The opinion of the l court Is based squarely upon the
 ground that Congress has the power | to raise state rates for the purpose | of increasing the revenues of inter- | state carriers.
 Granting that Congress has, under | the constitution, the right to strike
 down authority and destroy powers of state regulatory bodies. 1t cer-
 tainly should not delegate such i'm portant authority to any govern | mental agency, and should, itself, ex-
 or emergency.
 I
 "The tendency of government ls certainly toward centralization and unless some influences strong and
 effective are set in motion to count l eract this tendency, the result will be ! disastrous"
 | Who is responsible for this ernascu | lation of authority of the states Was asked by Mir. Patterson. He answered his own question thus: "It does not require prophet to discern the fine l Italian hand of shrewd railroad law yers in the preparation and passage | of such legislation. MT. Patterson went on to say of the railroads: Tn the early days when they were
 receiving land grants and valuable franchises. they were willing to abide by state laws. Later, when they had filled their coffers out of | the peoples treasury and had grown rich and powerful under the peoples | favor, they began to disobey state laws and to defy authority of the people who had so generously dealt | with them"
 Railroads Prospered
 | MT. Patterson contended that the
 railroads had thrived under the | rates established by the state of Ala
 bama; they had thrived under the Conner rates which decision in tine | Meridian rate case has threatened. MT. Patterson does not contend for intrastate rates that are unreason- able. In this connection he said | "It is not the purpose of Alabama to establish or maintain any system of depressed rates or to decline to pay
 our pro rata of the total revenue l ran,rirad fo enah1a the carriers q