Show THE TRIUMPH saw dixine a maximum for bates Is unconstitutional washington march 7 justice liar lan today delivered the opinion in the nebraska maximum case lie held the nebraska law to be contrary to the amendment to the constitution in that it authorized the taking of property without due process of law and was therefore invalid hence abo railroad won justice opinion affirmed the opinion in the circuit court appeals of the eighth circuit which was against maximum freight rate laws aad favorably to the railroads the cafe was instituted to test the validity of a law passed by the nebraska legislature in 1893 maximum rates for the transportation of freights by railroads within the detate the act applies specifically to freights by railroads transit begins and ends in the there was no effort ia ita enactment to control interstate it affected all the railroads in the state and the railroad companies instituted proceedings which were terminated by opinion by filing a bill in the nebraska circuit court elou after the law was enacted the object of the bill was to acure an order re the state officials from duttine the law into force the law wae attacked on the prland of its ancon it was charged that inasmuch as the act applied only to detate it wae a discrimination against them and therefore o 0 to the spirit of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution the railroads contend that the maximum rate filed was unreasonable and ruinous to the roads it was aleo asserted that the act interfered with interstate commerce toe detate met those allegations with areu in support ot the validity of the law the decision from the circuit court was delivered by justice brewer 0 the supreme court who the contention of the railroad companies and held against the validity ot the law hie opinion was based largely upon the clarce ot unreasonableness lie made a computation showing that the reduction effected in freight rates amounted on an average to 29 per cent which bo held waa too preale change the cabe has been twice argued in the lion W J bryan appealing counsel for the aa one 0 the detate at the last bearing much interest has been manifested in the decision bince the case was docketed because of the probable a result favorably to the law would have upon the legislation in other states justice harlan said that the following principles roust be regarded settled first A corporation is a person within the roe anine the fourteenth amen dicent declaring that no detate chell deprive any person of property without due process of law nor deny to any gereon within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws second A detate enactment or regulation made under the authority of detate enactment each rate tor or or property by rall role aa will not admit ot the earlier earning earn such reasonable interest aaen duct circumstances Is just to it and to the public would deprive euch carrier of ite property without duo process of law and deny to it the equal protection of the laws and would therefore be repugnant to the amendment 0 tho of he united stales 3 while rates for the transportation of persons and property erty within the limit ot a state are primarily for its deter question whether they are so unreasonably low as to deprive the carrier of its property without such compensation pensa tion as the constitution and therefore without due process of law cannot be so determined by the legislature of the elate or by regulations adopted under its legislature that the matter may not become abe subject of judicial inquiry this last proposition justice tad covered the in point he then proceeded to make an exhaustive examination into the effect oe the enforcement of the rates prescribed upon the business of the different nebraska lines showing the reduction to amount to 25 per cent for the years and 1893 the result was to show that each oi the roads involved would for this period have conducted their business at a loss with only one or two exception and those tor only a short time |