The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-01
PLAN TO COMBINE. M. 90. AND FRISCO.
fContinued from Page Fivel


 and, when exercised, will prove to be, of transcendent importance to the wei fare of the people of the United States. The act of the commission in the grouping of rail lines will inevitably exert an influence upon the future association of railroads, and, through their combination. the commerce of the country to a degree that cannot be measured, much less restricted by the absence of present provision for en- forcing power.
 s'The. state of Alabama does not, therefore, sympathize in the least with the elsewhere suggested idea that, be- cas1se no power is provided to enforce alsdeclared judgment by the commis- sion, or because a grouping made may be. changed when occasion requires, the commissions action in the premises is q shot in the air. To the contrary the state of Alabama wishes to record and to emphasize it's views, that the very subject. matter of the commissions s function, having due regard for the natural and logical results to attend it's discharge, attaches the greatest im- portance to the conclusions, the com mission will promulgate.
 It is ever a graz. mistake in advance to minify a contemplated governmental act, to undertake to discount or to de- tract from its proper dignity, force and effect, for to do so is to inculcate, if not inspire, indifference to its meri- torious consideration and to encourage the faulty conception that, even when done, the act will be but vain 'ges- tnre.s
 Commerce, not only in course and volume, but also i'll the motive to pro- duce its elements has always been and will always be peculiarly sensitive to the effects of the presence or of the ab- sence of facilities for it's efficient eco nofnical movement, and of the presence or of the absence of favorable or unfa- vorable authoritative regulation. Not only is this true, but tine motive to ere ate. articles of commerce or to promote the entrance of commodities into the channels of commerce is immediately af- fected by those factors. The number of eonsignees and consignors is directly and markedly influenced by the prac- tical means available to serve the pur- poses of buyers, sellers and dealers. The relation of commerce to the welfare of the people generally was, in the be- ginning, recognized as being so persist GuS4JB CuuuA8DAABiJ ludt tAC constitution of tine United States de clares its preeminence and uncondition- ally protects it from prejudice or inter ference by the state, reposing Ill the United States a necessarily supreme power over it's regulation. The power over commerce. including navigation, aserted Marshall in Gibbons vs. Og- den, was one of the primary objects for nk Akn of h aH toH \ their government -.
 N"These considerations, trite as is their repetition to this experienced and informed commission, justify the state of Alabama in respectfully urging the Interstate Commerce Commission to ac- cord to the public interest, present and prospective, primary importance in de termining to what particular groups the respective rail lines of the United States shall be assigned.
 "The acceptance by the commission ot this rule, consisting as it does of sound conceptions of the public welfare, ln- wolves the subordination thereto of all } factors that are inspired, however wor- thily. as selfish as distinguished from patriotic considerations. In applying this rule to a concrete base, the very
  the premises is at present, without en- A forcing power, invites the commission to d address itself to the practical ideal without the restraint that might inter veYte if the commission was actually dl- vesting or investing property rights or disturbing corporate control.
 Tn the discharge by the commission of this function, it is manifest that the public interest and general welfare ex' acts that account be taken Of foreign and inter-coastal commerce as we'll as interstate commerce over internal rails and water lines.
 9"In the estimation of everyone who is conscious of the great and increasing capacity of the American people to pro diice an excess of commodities for dis tant consumption, the facilities ant economical inter-delivery of articles 1T interstate commerce is no more import ant than the facilitated and economica export of Americas production o Americas excesses beyond its needs The nerve system of the concern of thu American people in respect of com rnerce over the bays, the gulfs, and thu seas, converges at the piont where raj lines connect with the ports of the na TfOi.9-- HL lHIS ROIIlb OI JullStuA' that the existence of adequate econOmi cal facilities for the transmission O >, commodities from rail to water ant from water to rail becomes absolutel. essential to the commerce of the United States. Port facilities are to commerce over the gulfs and the seas what tn hand is to the service and sustenance O the body.
 AThe state of Alabama in deyoting large proportion of it's public funds t, ! the improvement of the port of Mobil is undertaking, as other states hay done and are doing, to provide this in dispensable connection between the lam and the sea, a connection, however, tha for practical service or value is de pendent entirely upon the physical re lation of the port, over existing raj \ lines, to territory the products iron which can find prompt, effigient, eco homical delivery to carriers by water " .These considerations inspire thu state of Alabama's s insistence that thu port of Mobile is an instrument of sucl national value that no governmental act, however, inconclusive some ma. view it, could be justified that woul' contribute in any degree to impair O hinder the great service the port o Mobile can render the commerce of tn nation. The century long history of tn port of Mobile demonstrates it's need to a widely spread commerce, and tn state of Alabama does not imagine