Show PROPERTY RIGHTS SUFFER ANO BLOW during the last twenty years the right of 0 the owner to do with his property as he pleases has has been getting it in ili the neck with remarkable regularity all the sacred rights have been attacked and private property has been crippled until tile the poor thing 1 can barely hobble along like a chinese I 1 woman with bound feet sighing for the happy time when it strode 1 with hobnailed boots tile the cock of 0 the te 1 walk and now comes the V U S supreme court and declares that under certain circumstances the hallowed instrument of commerce and trade the contract tract may standen th the w ewy biot ot public policy and therefore be as worthless as a five ruble banknote ban knote some years ago the utah power light company sent out its salesmen to dispose ot of electric current several concerns having power plants of their own were induced to scrap them I 1 because the power company made long term contracts with them agreeing to supply current at a very low i rate seventy eight I 1 of 0 such contracts had been made when utah created a public utilities commission that commission declared that contracts with individual con concerns ceras tor for rates not available to the public were discriminating and ordered them cancelled ot of course the beneficiaries of 0 the contracts fought it if you make a contract with your grocer to deliver eggs to you for the next thirty days at ten tell cents a dozen doen you would hate an outsider come in and command you to pay twenty cents the litigation lasted four our years now the supreme court has decided that the state had the constitutional right to cancel the agreements regardless ot of the considerations upon which the contracts contract were based most assuredly life is id getting even harder for poor old private property october SUNSET |