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The Commoner.
FEBRUARY 23, 190G
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SENATOR LODGE, of Massachusetts, recently
delivered a speech in. the senate on the rail
road rate question, and because of Mr. Lodge's
intimate relations with the president some of the
things he said were so insignificant that they
caused widespread comment. Mr. Lodge declared
that he seriously questioned the wisdom of con
ferring upon the interstate commerce commis
sion the mildest form of rate-malting power, and
referring to this speech the Associated Press
says : "While the, speech may not have had the
approval of the president the fact tnat the presi
dent and Senator Lodge were out walking two
hours and a half yesterday afternoon and that.
Lodge has been in daily consultation with the
president is taken as suggestive, to say the least.
Lodge's statement that in any event the fullest
opportunity for appeal to courts should he grant
Qd railroads and shippers is assumed to indicate
the decision of the president that an appeal
amendment is proper and fair.''
REFERRING TO THE Lodge speech the Asso
ciated Press said that in any event the
statements coming from such a quarter have stif
fened the backbone of the "conservative sena
tors." Of course the Associated Press is more or
less conservative at times. So tlie real import
of the Lodge speech may be best understood by
reference to a dispatch sent to the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat (republican) by its Washington
correspondent: "The administration is prepared
to accept the proposed amendment to the Hep
burn rate bill which provides tnat there shall
be a reference of the interstate commerce com
mission decisions to the courts before they are
effective. The president has listened to the ad
vice of Senators Knox and Crane and other of
the administration's friends in tne senate, and
to his Cabinet officers, Root, Tart and Shaw. He
now backs down on his demands to the extent
of accepting the reference amendment. No for
mal announcement in this connection has been
made, but none is needed, as no other interpreta
tion can be put on the speech or, Senator Lodge
of Massachusetts in the senate this afternoon.
Senator Lodge has for years been one of the
closest personal friends of President Roosevelt.
He has frequently appeared as tne administration
spokesman in the senate during this session,
and when not fortified withftfacts to refute criti
cisms of the administration he has gone to the
telephone and talked with cabinet officers, post
ed himself along desired lines, returned to the
floor and made the desired defense."
IN THIS SAME dispatch it is said on the
afternoon preceding the day on which Sen
ator Lodge delivered his speech this Massachu
setts senator called at the White House, and for
two hours he and the president tramped through
the country contiguous to the national capital.
The Globe-Democrat correspondent says that Sen
ator Lodge rehearsed his speech to the president
and let him know the announcement he proposed
to make of his position. The Globe-Democrat
correspondent adds: "With the action of Senator
Lodge many another senator seeking an author
itative statement as to what the position of the
administration will be on the proposed amend
ment, has his mind set at rest and will come out
for it. With this important cnange there is a
firm belief that the railrpads will not oppose the
executive further, realizing that it will be" use
less. It is also reasonably certain that the re
publican senators who have opposed the legis
lation in and out of the committee will favor the
Hepburn bill as amended."
THERE HAS BEEN so much misrepresentation
with respect to the vital issues In the Hep
burn railway rate bill as it appears in the senate
discussion that a writer in the Chicago Record
Herald, a republican newspaper, says: "It is well
to hold the character of the problem clearly in
mind." This writer' says: "Tne" Hepburn bill
has not a word to say about any method by which
the railroads can appeal to the courts to review
any rate or rates established by the commission.
What it does provide is a method by which the
commission can go into court to rorce the rail
roads to obey its orders if they ignore them.
The commission may petition a United States
circuit court to enforce its order. The court shall
investigate 'the facts at issue or which may ariso
on the hearing of such petition If, then, 'it
appears that tho order was regurarly made and
duly served, and that tho carrier is in disobedi
ence of tho same, the court shall enforce obedi
ence to the order by a writ of injunction or other
proper process, mandatory or otherwise.' When
tho railroad makes defense against mandatory
process it, of course, has available its full con
stitutional rights. If it can show that the commission-made
rate is confiscatory or encroaches
unreasonably on its earning power it will wiiu
But there is nothing whatever in the bill, so far
as any reading of the text can snow, which em
powers a court to pass upon the justice of the
commission-made rate in any other sense than
this, or by any other standards ir, however, tho
bill should bo amended so as to grant a court the
power to review the full work or tne commission,
to pass upon its facts, its reasonings, and its con
clusion, the whole tenor of the law would seem
to be radically altered. And just such a change
is the one that is intended humost cases when
an amendment 'granting the right of appeal is
proposed."
ACCORDING TO this same authority tho
change would bo radical first from practical,
secondly from constitutional considerations. The
Record-Herald explains: "On tne practical side
the importance lies in the fact that there is a
wide margin of 'reasonableness' In specific rail
road rates, from the standpoint of the road's
finances, while at the same time many of these
financially reasonable rates may be, from tne
shippers' standpoint, highly discriminatory and
unreasonable. Now, if the commission is to have
a delegated legislative or administrative discre
tion to decide what rate is fair for railroads and
shippers alike, and if the railroads are then to
be protected against positive unreasonableness in
such rates by the courts, that is one thing. But
if the railroads are to be able to take the whole
question into the court, and have the court sub
stitute its own judgment for the commission's
judgment to tho extent of rejecting any commission-made
rate when that rate does not appear
to the judges to be the only reasonable rate un
der all the circumstances, that is a very different
fning. It would probably be next to impossible
under this last arrangement for any commission
made rate to be sure of standing. There would
be too much margin for the substitution of the
judges' ideas for the commissioners' ideas. On
the constitutional side the importance of such
an amendment lies in the fact that a serious doubt
would arise whether the commission and the court
did not then have practically identical functions.
If their functions were held to be the same there
would be such a mixture of judicial and legisla
tive powers in the one body or the other as to
make the constitutionality ot the law beyond
hope. The thing to keep in mind is that the two
forms of relation between commission and court
are radically different, and that any man who
says they are not is merely trying to pull wool
over somebody's eyes."
A DISPATCH TO THE Chicago Record-Herald
under date of Jacksonville, 111., Feb. 12, fol
lows: "William J. Bryan, who is president of the
board of trustees of Illinois college of this city,
has written from Hongkong, China, tendering
his resignation, to take effect at once, and it was
accepted tonight by that body. Mr. Bryan re
fuses to serve as a trustee because the board
wishes to take advantage of the offer made by
Mr. Carnegio to extend aid to western colleges.
He says "the colleges that accept are selling out
to 'the plutocrats of the land who are seeking to
strangle economic truth.' 'The Issue presented,'
writes Mr. Bryan, 'seems to me to be a vital
one,t and even if Carnegie refuses, the same ques
tion will likely arise if some other trust magnate
invites requests. Our college cannot serve God
and Mammon. It cannot be a college for the
people and at the same time commend itself to
the commercial highwaymen who are now sub
sidizing the colleges to prev.ent -the teaching of
economic truth. It grieves me to have my alma
mater converted into an ally of plutocracy, but
having done what I could to prevent it, I have
no other recourse than to withdraw from its mam
agement. I regret that the action, if it must bo'
taken, was not taken before I save my notes,
for I regard tho money jjIvpji as worse than
wasted, if the college is to be under the shadow
of a great monopoly.' After the reading of,the
letter to the trustees they voted unanimously to
accept Mr. Bryan's resignation. A month ago
Judge Owen P. Thompson and"M. F. Dunlap, both
prominent Illinois democrats, wno were trustees
of this college, resigned from tho noard because
Mr. Carnegie was to be asked to assist the in
stitution in its finances. Illinois college was es
tablished in 1830, and is the oldest educational
Institution west of tho Alleghany mountains. It
is a small college, and in a straitened financial
condition. Mr. Bryan was elected chairman of
the board of trustees about a year ago, and at
that time pledged $2,500 to the school."
TN ITS ISSUE of January 12 Tho Commoner re
JL produced a Washington dispatch to the Bos
ton Transcript under the headline, "A Story of
Two Resignations." A prominent citizen of South
McAlester, Indian Territory, writing to The Com
moner, says: "This article unwittingly does a
grave Injustice to Mansfield, McMurray & Cornish,
tho general attorneys for tho Choctaw and Chick
asaw nations. These attorneys prevented the en
rollment of something near four thousand court
claimants as citizens of tho Choctaw and Chick
asaw nations; they enforced the payment of cat
tle and tribal taxes In the courts over the vigor
ous and vicious opposition of an element that
adopted every known subterfuge to violate the
laws governing intercourse with the Indians; they
unearthed fraud and perjury in the citizenship
cases that exposed men of high standing. In
fact, they espoused the cause or tho under dog
(the Indian) with such zeal that they aroused
the undying enmity and hatred of a large con
tingent here; and it is a notorious and undeniable
fact, that the indictments referred to in the articlo
hereinbefore mentioned, was tho result of a con
spiracy upon the part of those wno had been
exposed. As a result of tho efforts .of these at
torneys it is reasonably estimated that they have
saved to the Indians some twenty million dollars
worth of property. It is not true that the United
States district attorney resigned or oven offered to
resign before he would dismiss the Indictments
in question. It is a fact; however, that he agreed
with Attorney General Moody, after an Investiga
tion was had, that a conviction was impossible
under the statements of facts. It is undeniable
that every dollar which this firm was charged
with embezzling was expended In tho payment
of necessary expenses incidental to the prosecu
tion of the fraudulent court citizens and in' the
protection of tribal property. The friends of
Messrs. Mansfield & Cornish believe that The Com
moner has unintentionally given credit where
it does not belong and has erred In the reproduc
tion of the article above mentioned, in this that
it does not state the facts as they exist."
THE WASHINGTON correspondent for the New
York World tells this more or less inter
esting story: "Senator Depew was today
for the first time in many montns, recognized as
a factor in federal patronage. He was summoned
by .the president for consultation regarding the
selection of a collector of customs for Buffalo.
Senator Piatt also was requested to be present.
This was Mr. Piatt's first conference with- the
president since before the Christmas holidays,
Mr. Piatt, incensed at the frequent consultations
here by the president with younger politicians
of the state, had declared himself the only boss,
and asserted that ho would never visit the presi
dent again until sent for. The Invitation came
today. Senators Piatt and Depew both indorsed
Fred O. Murray for collector and the president
gave him the appointment." The president had
indicated a pronounced preference for Mr. Mur
ray, who is an anti-Odell man. The Odell candi
date was Henry W. Brendel, tho present in
cumbent. He was formerly a supporter of Piatt,
and it was Piatt who got him the collectorship."
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