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Show ) BRIEF HIED IN RATE CONTEST North Dakota Contends Rail Raises Without Legal Authority. V SH INOToN. May -Counsel for ! .North I'.loia filed their brief today con-te.-tiny ihe l;o rnaiol.t's authority to in- t e i . ero with inlra.-Mte treh;ht and pas-; pas-; sender rates, in iho appeals brought In the supremo court by the government from state supreme court decries en.'ohnn.e; tho y Northern V.u-ifie railroad from increasing its talcs Ir. coi.Vianoe with an orvlt-r of pj the railroad administration. 1 , Tho brief asserts that coiil;ihs, in ens' en-s' ;.eiim: t!e railroad control act. had no in-I in-I ! trillion of pivinij federal officials this i iu;;hortty. and assorted the- statute did rot confer arbitrary power upon the i i presnu-ut. k! 'T'r.dei' tno control act." it says, "the ?' president is aut'uoried. to iv.ako only such r orders as are necessary or proper to v;u ry F o il t:;e objects of federal control, namely, i' the u?e of the railroads for war and otlur p 1 i;rposis connected Uierewith. "Clearly the state laws upon these stib- 1 .--ts are n-H inconsistent with the act o contrrtss and cannot be abrogated or su i prseued by an order of t he pi esident. The laws coveruititr the carriers in these pi. -.t tors have no vela t ion to the conduct of the war. Similarly, if the obligation of i'h varriers to irr.nsport p: opcrty at A r-aron;.Vle rates estabhshed by state law is not Inconsistent, with the provisions of t Ao acts of eontrress. it is not within the powo" of the president to i atei fere with ; ' 1 1 1 f1 force and effect of these laws." t ! The brief compared the. original draft M of the milroad control act with the me-a-f 1 ;- aro :'S ilnally juissed, to show wnai chaniLt; had been made to preserve stale L laws." fj Thii!?," th br'.ef continued, "from a y bill in which it was attempted to lodpe final rate-making powers in the president. "i the bilt becomes one in which the 'poiiee tij regtilatioiis" of the states and the juris riiclior. of the interstate commerce coin- mission were preserved." |