Show COMMON SENSE LAW After Atter all the discussion and bun buncombe buncombe buncombe combe about government regulation of or railroads the federal courts have been I called in and the first Judge to be heard holds that the Missouri state law fix fixIng fixIng fixing Ing 2 cents as aa a standard passenger rate per mile Is subject to a common commonsense commonsense commonsense sense test as to Its reasonableness Affirming the power powerS of the United States courts to pass upon the state law the judge ruled that the sole ques question question question tion of or tact fact to be decided was whether the rate is reasonable whether it Is confiscator or not and that this might be decided In a practical way he held that It should be tried in opera operation operation tion lion for tor three months and the results used as a basis of oi future judicial opinion Judge McPhersons procedure Is so o oa a rational as to be almost astounding after the cocksure of the from the president down who have assumed that anybody could tell teli offhand what rate a rail railroad railroad railroad road ought to charge and what would be legal Scarcely a crossroads poli poll politician pOlitician has been heard beard for the past year who was not ready to prove by his own figures that 2 cents per mile was ample compensation for tor passenger traffic no matter what the cost of or the railroad or the th expense of ot operations or tho the possible revenue from a given mileage Apparently the federal tede l courts ruling marks the beginning of or an era of sen sensible sensible sible consideration in which facts and not prejudice will have play and In which the rights of or the transportation companies as well aa as the rights of or the people will be weighed In the balance of justice Following the refusal of ot 4 the Wisconsin railroad commission to sanction a 2 cent rate program and Governor Hughes veto of a bill this decision gives promise of a sta stability stability for tor railroad Investments such as seemed impossible when the president and his followers In congress was wa at atthe atthe atthe the height of or thEIr hostile campaign against everything that savored of railroad ownership It Is notable too that the decision follows the presidents Indianapolis speech in which he retraced his steps tar far enough to declare that the great transportation corporations were not overcapitalized and were entitled to fair fall play except in the case of such corporations as had been clearly crim criminal crimInal inal In their conduct Possibly the conservative reaction of which speech is the key keynote keynote keynote note had bad no relation to the approach approaching ing campaign for the presidency but ItIs It ItIs itis Is altogether probable that the president president president dent had a weather eye out for the coming political struggle when he at attuned attuned tuned his voice so gently In Indianapolis I oils olis and held out a whole bunch of or olive branches to the railroad powers he h had opposed so bitterly in the win winter wintel winter ter tel |