The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-27
INTERSTATE RATES
 CUT 121-2PERC CENT AZ TER JULY BORDER
Public Service Commission Sends Order to Railroads to Reduce-PatterSon Dis
 sentS Bitterly
Ny FRED H. GoRNfLEx Montgomery Bureau, Tho sc-Hernld, az1-2 First National Bank Building

az1~2 First National Bank Building
 Montgomery, May 2s.-(Special)-- All intrastate rates which were ad- vanced 25 per cent during tho war in conformity with the order of the interstate commerce commission. will be reduced 1ah per cent on July l. when the interstate rates become ef- fectivs, 1t was decided late yester- day afternoon by tho Alabama Pub lie Service commission, which in- structed tho railroads to make such reductions at the time they make the reductions on shipments between states.
 The order specifically provides that the rates on velvet beans, velvet bean products, and mixed feed for animals and poultry must be given the same reduction. It also provides that no change shall be made in the rates on raw materials for furnaces, which the commission refused to per- init the railroads to increase when the last advance on interstate rates was permitted.
 Is. tf. cooper dnu D. 6dlildios &s sociate commissioners. voted for the order, which was written by Com missioner Gaillard, while President A. c. Patterson dissented and filed a dissenting opinion in which he de- clared he was in full accord with the subjects sought to be obtained by the order. but charged that the order was hastily written by Commissioner Gaillard while he, Patterson, was ab- sent in Atlanta on business for the state and while Commissioner Cooper was in Mobile presumably upon per- sonal political business" and is based only on meager information about what the order of the interstate commerce commission contains and without the formal order of the fed- eral commission being before the public service commission.
 President Patterson declared that members of the public service com mission sit as judges on a case and should not promulgate orders until full information has been obtained. He insisted that there would have been no delay in the establishment of decreased rates if the public service commission had waited & few days or until the full Information regard ing the order of the federal com mission had been obtained. Mir. Pat terson further charged that from the facts which he stated it is apparent that the frantic haste of Commis- sioners Gaillard and Cooper to make and issue this order is prompted by politics and not by common sense and the exercise of judicial Judg- ment." He said this statement is >Justified by the established rules which provide that all members of a court or quasi judicial body should be consulted before an order has been issued and that Commissioner Gail lard, before he consulted with all other members of the commission. rushed into the newspapers with his announcement of his order, proud . ly proclaiming himself as the author thereof"
 Dissenting opinion of President A. c. Patterson, of the commission fol- lows:
 I am in perfect accord with the objects sought to be obtained by the order issued today by the majority of the commission in the above cause, but I dissent from the rest of the commission as to the propriety and wisdom of making and issuing such an order at this time, for the fol- lowing reasons:
 l. The order hastily written by Commissioner Gaillard while I was in Atlanta on business for the state,