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Show FEDERAL CONTROL OF THE RAILWAY RATES IMPOSSIBLE Commissioner of Minnesota, In Report to National Association of the Railway Rail-way Commissioners, Declares Such a Move Would be Unconstitutional. Washington. When the annual convention con-vention of the Natlonnl Association of Railway Commissioners convened on Friday for Its final session, the special committee on safety appliances rec ommended congressional legislation to compel railroads, both steam nnd electric, elec-tric, to protect their tracks by nn nutomntlc signal system nnd urged tho several stnto legislatures to enact laws nlong this lino. Charles F. Staples, commissioner of Minnesota, presented tho report on "Rntes and Rnto Making." The report said : "The cases aro raro where n railroad of any Importance is not nn Interstate road. This may bo argued ub n reason for entire federal control, something we believe to bo impossible without ninendlng tho constitution. con-stitution. This wo do believe tho stntes will concedo until It Is demonstrated demon-strated that It Is moro practical than experience has yet shown It to be. "There have been ninny rate reductions reduc-tions In different stntes, followed by reductions on Interstate traffic, and, so far as we know, these havo all been brought nbout by the alllrmntlvo notion no-tion of the state authorities. So far as we ure advised, wo know or no general gen-eral reduction due to nny action by tho federal authorities. We believe the best interests of the peoplo would not be served by placing tho entire responsibility of rate control on the federal government. We believe thero should ho n much closer relationship between tho federal nnd Btate authorities author-ities than seems to exist nt present; that In ninny matters n state commission commis-sion slinuid act as agent for the Interstate Inter-state commerce commission, to the advantage ad-vantage of both." |