OCR Text |
Show THE PEOPLE HOODWINKED. There has been a postponement of the date when the reduction ordered by the Interstate Commerce commission shall become effective. effect-ive. Certain rate reductions were ordered, following the hearing in the Spokane and cognate cases, and the reason assigned for the change in the effective date is that subsequent to the promulgation of the opinions of the commisrion, congress amended the fourth section sec-tion of the interstate commerce act, which introduced a now and important im-portant element into all these discussions. .Thus, it will be observed, there are ytimes when legislation, ostensibly unfavorable to the railroads, is to their advantage and, it is just possible, passed at the urgent solicitation of the railroad lobby. An order or ruling of the Interstate Commerce commission requires re-quires several years of constant litigation to obtain the supreme court's mandate, which is necessary to its enforcement. As a result, re-sult, after years of battling in the courts, the struggle of the people for better railroad rates, may come to naught by the repeal or modification modi-fication of the original enactment, and all this can be accomplished in the name of progressive legislation, though in fact it be legislation legis-lation dictated by the cunning, crafty minds of the brilliant fellows empowered by the railroads to retard or nullify adverse legislation. |