Show FAILURE MIKE 0 OF F THE THEIS COMMISSION IS AC ACT Texas exas Has Not Solved the Rail Railroad Railroad road roat Question by Enact Enactment Enactment Enactment ment of Law FRANK ADMISSION IS MADE MADEe e POINTERS FOR THE OKLAHOMA CONVENTION GuthrIE OUla Okla Dec Dee H HA A feature of the session hero here today tollay of ot the tho constitutional COfi constitutional convention o was waa an nn address on rail mil railway milway railway way rate legislation by Oscar B Colquitt a member of the Texas exas railroad commission commis commission sion Mr Ir Colquitt declared that while the Texas railroad td commission act is a good Iod law rate regulation in Texas has lias been beena a failure allure except in producing uniformity and he quoted Mr Ir l of the same tame All as a that it had l been heen een a failure Commenting on the tilt efforts of ot l President Roosevelt Mr r said Bald that if It strong men wore were kept on till the interstate commerce commis commission commisSion sion ion and aue th the courts did not nullify r tuck their work worl in th Hepburn rate Cate bill bUl might sat cat at th the people otherwise ho 1 believed hollee l J oot nU would become the forerunner of One Good Resulted It U is ts mi my deliberate judgment said i Jr r Colquitt otter after exhaustively reviewing t rule re to regulation In n Texas the principle if not lIot tIll the only substantial good tl the te e commission law la of Texas as fiS administered has bus hu lone done the people is tb the to them to each person pt and place e uniform rates J Taking raking the staple pro products products ducts of oC he lie state Plate I think it safe to say Hay that the tIt totes rates now HOW In ht effect Hect and antl against which the roads aro liTA protesting In the tIle a ne aR Being bt too low are aro the highest of at c most mot any an othur state In hi unless it is the th Rocky HocKy and Pacific This is not the fault f of t U the e law Tito Tho law la is It perhaps tho the beat beatt eer t k er cr enacted upon the subject Our pow low power lower er for IB is II almost complete And AnI nd yet I limy say sayo iO co o you jou Ou that While In fit other the thu railroad law is s a sue suo fits r c ss if Ir vigorously vl enforced yet It as a rare raa snaking making ing tower power liD wor T r have been be n forced to tine log that It is 18 very largely a failure f luro Courts C rt Partly Part y Responsible Mr Ir said that ho lie to had a i ltd t Mayfield la If It experience anti amt results hid Jud not shown that the govern government government ment regulation Of railroads is a fail failure ire ure anti and lie he quoted Mr Mayfield ns en paying that lie li could not quite subscribe 10 to 0 the proposition that government regulation regu regulation regulation lation bj lIy state and nation ia Is a n failure and ind that they thoy tell us tho the duty of regu reu 1 freight rates is exclusively Ji n ln ing j Ji function and yet tho the legislative l flower in the C of t that function functions is s controlled absolutely by Judicial inter interference ference ferenee Mr lr Colquitt said he did not agree big bis distinguished associate n a clale in placing all oil the tic blame on the courts as the courts wore were not riot la to blame for heIng hung appealed l to Much Mach of the th trouble he declared l was jn In is the incorporation laws lawf of the state He lie suggested that Oklahoma could guard gund against thisby thi by distinguishing In If Its con constitution constitution between the he citizen and the artificial person f t Pointer for Oklahoma Also that the Oklahoma commission should be clothed with ith Judicial power and that the commission should provide for the purchase of the railroads by the rhe state at their market value in the event the railroads should attempt to the rates rate by resorting to the federal courts Declaring that rite rate regulation had been beena a failure in If Texas because tho the commis commission commission sion sian has heretofore compromised with tile the railroads lOll and has not given giell tho courts an opportunity to tp peas pass upon UP ln the reason renDOn reasonableness reasonableness of the commissions rates Mr Colquitt said he hoped that in the suit now pending against the Texas commis commission commission sion clout opportunity would bo po given for tor proving prey preying ing tho the reasonableness ne s of a rate rato and for or establishing a doctrine different from that contended for by the lawyers in con construing construing the Nebraska ease He Ho also hoped that Oklahoma would frame a constitution constitution tion dan and law which would show that government regulation of railroads can be made successful Possibility of Bryan In speaking sp of the Hepburn rate law Mr Ir Colquitt said that Roosevelt with witha a master mind and hand land foresaw that something must be done and that if it strong courageous men were kept on tho the commission and their actions are not by applications of the railroads to the courts COUlts for tor restraining orders the country may be contented But If re reverses reverses verses versos take tako lI u place then theu it will not sur sut surprise prise me m Jf It does o s not pot become the forerunner of Bryan Blan an and a n of the way for tor a different solution of the transportation question Mr Ir Colquitt was an advocate of rail rall railroad railroad road roat regulation in Texas Te when that cause causa was wall championed by b the t e late Governor Gov error Hogg HOIS He Is ia tho the first prominent man in public life in Texas to declare that it has been a n failure in results |