Show A LESSON IN like others who are very often right 0 the man mail on oil the salt lake herald sometimes gets wrong A case in point is the discussion odthe Ta farmers alliance le legislation concerning rail railroads rowls the herald while ostene ably a free lance with tonio cratic tendencies is singularly 0 prone to lean toward and boom targe large corporation corli oration and its iti defense of railroads oi on i friday morning last is no marked exception cep tion in ili tile article in in question the herald asserts that the alliance All ianco legislature 0 in kansas has passed caf sed two measures against railroads one makin making the iii highest liest rate to he be barged geil io for r carrying passengers 21 2 cents per mile tile other reducing ill 0 the freight 0 tariff about twenty per cent below what it is at present then the herald dee declares lares of the action of the legislature will not stand and for reason adds it lias has been repeatedly beld by the courts that while legislatures isla tures have the right to regulate 0 the charges of common carriers carriers they cannot reduce the charges below tile point at which they will bi profitable hlo to tile carrier this statement of the rulin ruling of courts is true but the assumption of tile the herald that the rates fixed lexcil ly by the kansas would re ault injuriously to railroads is purely assumption before railroads can call provo prove tile position tile the lias has taken in their behalf the they would leave lave to travel hy by suell a devious route that they night might despair of course the railroad colfi cers state what the crall Jf states elates and no doubt state the truth in all human probability however the asker assertion tion that tile the rates will not pay is not within the line ortruth of truth if considered in connection with the territory for which the kalpas legie legislature lature has hae a right to make laws over entire lines the roads that do business in kansas might how a decided loss logs if the rates that have licen been established as a maximum na i basis by the alliance legislature were to prevail nut but while to carry passengers M ers at a 21 cent per milo mile r rate tic might inight V prove it a loss 1015 to a railway in nebraska or colorado Colo or wyoming 0 it does docs not follow that this rate would entail aboss a loss to to tit the same road in a more inore densely populated district ditri ct like kansas we pay about live five cents a mile passenger rate on oil the uraha northern a anil i lot we nic arc are robbed in t alic ile rate because tile union pacific forces the districts that are arc more densely populated to make 6 good tile arrea arrearages rages c 9 which occur in those vast ricas tracts over which the road runs where the population is sparser a and lid t the lie travel I 1 lighter i h ter the railway makes a uni uniform forin rate ba b cause it suits the railway company to lo do 10 so EO but it is not therefore just A maximum rate of 21 cents per mile for transporting pa passengers sen for the distance between the idaho idabo line anil allot salt lake if te tested ted would show a profit to alie company li pally but the malio idaho rate would have lave to be raised rais ed to mako make up for the deficit As legislatures pass laws for their own area which are interpreted by the courts for that area it would have to be shown that the rates in the area for which the rates are arc made would ro result in a 1 loss before tile the courts court would declare a law to lu bc void which fixed a maxin maximum iuni rate this is where the man mail loses liis his head and the granger dense as lie may be might inight teach tho the profound dogmatist a lesson jut as the simple cimpl 0 c ant io read in ill holy writ NN rit sets a I 1 worthy example to tile sluggard 0 there ire are some settle things a f farmer arnier knows if lie he is a farmer and it is evident lie is very poorly lioard po stad on the interpretation of rai railway livar laws if lie is ig not more familiar with them than the e herald appears to be it may ba that a 24 cent per mile rate for passengers rs and a reduction of twenty per cent in frei freight glit rates in kansas kanas would entail a loss D on railways in tile operation of their roads in ill that state slate but the herald article does docs not prove it to bo be so anil and failing to prove it despite the confidence with which that paper attributes intellectual density to tile kansas alliance members of the legislature on this subject they allay lie able to un 1 cloud the befogged herald mind on this topic at least |