Show Rzilroad Faros The Supreme court of Michigan has afllrmcd the contention of the Kailroad i ll Commissioner that the Wabash com M b pany must reduce Its passenger charges to 2 ½ cents a mile The law of Michigan Michi-gan Is on the sliding scale principle It provides that when annual earnings of railroad companies from passenger trains exceed 3000 a mile the fare shall be 2 cents a mile and that when the earnings are between 2003 and 3000 It shall be 2J6 cents The report of the Wabash for l93 gave the receipts re-ceipts from passenger rains an average If aver-age slightly In excess of 2000 a mile Apparently therefore a reduction from 3 to 2fc cents was required by the statute stat-ute The company advanced two lines of protest against the reduction One was the broad principle of the hick of power In Michigan to Interfere with interstate commerce to the extent implIed im-plied by the law The other was the technical objection that receipts from the carrying of malls express packages and baggage should not bo included In the total from which the average v8i4 hi determined The court nalurally miLls taming the authority of the Stale Je maintained that the statute refers only JJ Ito ii lo fares within the state It also sustained sus-tained the Railroad Commissioner In his view that all sources of revenu belonging lo passenger trains should ni j be Included In the total I This method of fixing rates of pass onger fare Is perhaps as fair as any that could be devised If good Judgment Judg-ment Is shown in adjusting the relation 4 rela-tion betveen earnings and fares for lie different classes There IB a rough 3 correspondonco between receipts per < mile and the ability to raise or lower fares although operating expense vary between companies It certainly Is a more scientific and Just system than the fixing of charges arbitrarily UI by Legislatures and it leaves less opportunities op-portunities for appeals than does n statute conferring this authority upon a commission n |