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PAGE SIXTEEN
Gov. Glenn ‘Defies the federal Court.
j'■ Asheville, N. C., July 20. —Gov.
\ Glenn is prepared to call. out the
militia it’ all the resources of his at
torneys fail in the conflict with Judge
Pritchard of the Federal court. The
Governor deciares that the Federal
Judge has practically attempted to
take over the administration of the
laws of North Carolina.
The action of Judge Pritchard in is
suing writs of habeas corpus for the
Southern Railroad ticket agents who
were convicted of violating the new
State law in selling tickets at the rate
of more than 2 1-4 cents a mile has
aroused the Governor to a high pitch
if indignation. He has ordered Judges
and prosecuting officers to indict rail
road agents in every county in the
State.
The railroads are selling tickets at
the old rate under protection of Judge
Pritchard’s order that the operation
of the new rate law should be sus
pended until evidence shall show that
the rates fixed are so low as to be
confiscatory. Officials and counsel of
the railroads are here backing up ev
ery move of the Federal court. The
State officers and judiciary are vio
lently opposed ’Co their position and
feting runs high.
“btate Rights” Talk Heard.
lam of Hie old '’State rights” is
sue is heard everywhere. Wucn Judge
i'ritcna d left here last Wednesday it
was supposed ae was going to Oyster
Lay to ask President itoosevelt for an
aimed force to sustain ins writs, ft
was at tins time that tne Southern
Railroad backeu down, and the Uni
ted Blates Marshal was directed not
to serve writs on. the fe lieriff which
uad been issued.
When Judge Long lined the South
ern Kailroad s>3o,ooU and Green, their
, ticket agent, $o yesterday for exacting
more than two and one-quarter cents
a mile, he declared from the bench
that the jurisdiction of the State
courts to administer the criminal laws
of the State is exclusive and there
can be no interference with the judg
ment of the court by the Federal ju
diciary. Judge Long had taken Green
into his own personal custody and
held him in the court room before
sentence, so that to have enforced
Federal Judge Pritchard’s writ the
United States Marshal must have en
tered a State court and seized the
prisoner by force.
Judge Pritchard’s latest writs are
for J. 11. Wood and O. C. Wilson,
the Southern Railroad ticket agents
who were convicted in Justice Ref
olds’ police court and sentenced to
thirty days on the chain gang when
they refused, on the advice of the
railroad attorneys, to give bond, pay
a fine or appeal. Attorneys for the
railroad are trying to get witnesses to
swear that Justice Reynolds, of ths
police court, said that if Judge
Pritchard interfered with his court
* he would put him in jail for con
tempt.
Clash Seems Imminent.
They have urged upon Judge
Pritchard that he should imprison
Reynolds for this. Any such action
will be resisted to the utmost by Gov.
Glenn and the State authorities and
a elaah seems imminent The Gnv-
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. *
ernor is determined that the new rate
law shall be enforced and violators
punished without awaiting the result
of a tedious litigation in the United
States courts.
The feeling is very bitter. The
legal advisers of the State officials
hold that Judge Pritchard has never
held the new law unconstitutional,
and assert that it is unprecedented
for a Judge of one court in effect to
forbid another court to enforce a
State law which it does not itself say
is invalid. There is much local feel
ing, too, because of the questions
which Judge Pritchard allowed at
the heaiing yesterday.
The questions inquired into the mo
tives of Police Judge Reynolds in is
suing the warrants for the ticket-sel
lers. Counsel were allowed to prove
that Justice Reynolds said that he
would issue other warrants as soon as
Judge Pritchard left the city. The
Federal Judge said that he allowed
such questions not for the purpose of
showing the motives of the State
Judge, but to give the prisoner’s
counsel opportunity to show that
there was an intent to crippie the
railroads by so many suits that the
protection afforded by his orignal
order would be nullified.
Much Excitement in City.
In anticipation of the hearing on
the habeas corpus writs before Judge
Pitchard today crowds gathered on
the strets early in the morning, and
there was much suppressed excite
ment throughout the city. President
Finley, of the Southern Railway
Company; A. P. Humphrey, general
counsel; Vice-President Ackert and
other prominent railroad officials are
in consultation here. Governor Glenn
and almost his entire cabinet are in
close communication, either in this
city or by telephone.
The whole trouble, which is likely
to become even more serious, arises
over the passage by the last Legisla
ture of the law fixing the maximum
passenger rate at 21-4 cents a mile.
Last May, on the application of the
Southern and almost every other rail
road in the State, Judge Pritchard, in
the Federal Court, to whom appeal
was made, directed the State Cor
poration Commission to show cause
before him at Asheville why it should
not be prevented from enforcing the
law.-
At this hearing Judge Pritchard
made an order forbidding the enforce
ment of the law by the State author
ities until he could determine by evi
dence to be thereafter taken wheth
er it was true, as alleged by the rail
roads, that the new rate was so low
as to deprive them of any return on
their, property, and was therefore
confiscatory and violative of the
fourteenth amendment to the United
States Constitution.
The injunction made certain State
officers defendants and in general
terms restrained all other persons
from bringing the penalty suits pro
vided by the law, and from proceed
ing criminally ngainst the railroads.
At Raleigh last week Superior
Con it Judge P. F. Long charged the
Grand Jury that nny railway agent
who charged a passenger more than
two and one-quarter cents a mile
was criminally guilty as provided by
the Rate law. Thereupon the Grand
Jury indicted ticket agent Green at
Raleigh, who was yesterday let off
with a $5 fine on conviction and his
promise to obey the law after this.
The railroad will put Green in- an
other position, and another ticket
seller is already in his place.
The legal phase of the situation
resembles that in New York, where
an 80-cent gas law was passed. The
companies appealed to the Federal
Courts, and the operation of the
State law was suspended pending a
final decision as to the alleged con
fiscatory features of the law by the
higher Federal courts.
CENTRAL RAILROAD TRIES TO
INTIMIDATE PEOPLE.
4 4 The people be d. ”
That seems to be the attitude of
the Central railroad.
Over the strong protest of the
public all along the line, that road
has discontinued the regular passen
ger train between Eatonton and Ma
con. The train came into Eatonton
last Saturday night, behind schedule
time, as usual —the business of the
Central is so great in volume that
it can’t handle it properly without
increasing its facilities —the train
came in late, as usual, turned about,
tooted a long and shrill farewell, and
went away, never to return until the
Central finishes the little job of cut
ting off its nose to spite its face.
Not much time was given the public
in which to protest, but in the limited
time allowed the Central received a
storm of protests from one end of the
line to the other. But the Cem
had determined upon its policy, of
which this was a part, and the only
answer the protesting parties received
was that the train did not pay, cou
pled with the significant little side
assertion that passenger rates had
been ordered reduced by the railroad
commission from 3 cents to 2 1-2
cents a mile. There is no good rea
son why the legislature should not
make it 2 cents mile for the Cen
tral.
Mr. John W. Blount, the traveling
passenger agent of the Central, was
quite particular to come to Eatonton
iij person, and, w’e presume, to other
points along the line, to let the peo
ple know the train was to be taken
off ‘‘because it did not pay” an al
leged fact that required some twen
ty years in the discovery—and to
sandwich in a few choice remarks
about the attitude of the public tow
ard the railroads. It is not unreason
able to conclude from Mr. Blount’s
side remarks that the real reason for
taking off this train was not that it
did not pay; that the real object
was to intimidate the public, and if
possible to prevent such adjustments
and reforms iin railroad practices and
management as would give the people
a square deal.
These adjustments and reforms are
considered just and proper by the
people throughout the length and
breadth of this broad land; and they
are not proposed in order to in
jure the railroads—fiobody wants to
wants to pull down the railroads, Jmt
they are proposed as a fair settle
ment of existing conditions, which
conditions may be summarized in the
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n *
arbitrary and exacting methods prac
ticed by the railroads on the one hand
in the purpose to pull out of the
pockets of the people every cent pos
sible to pay dividends to stockhold
ers who are in it for dividends only,
and on the other hand, the demand
of the people for better treatment.
It would have been well if the rail
roads had adopted some of these
measures of relief voluntarily, but
instead of showing a disposition
to meet the situatoiK in a spirit
of fairness and conservatism,
they are fighting them inch by
inch and are shaking the rag of
defiance in the facts of the people;
in fact, they are in effect threatening
the people by covert statements and
overt acts.
No conservative man can lend his
approval to such a course, and no
thoughtful one can fail to see its
utter unwisdom. If persisted in, it
will react on the railroads themselves.
It is a short-sighted policy, born of
inability to accede to any sort of
legitimate regulation by the people; it
is the outgrowth of autocratic domi
nation in which every mile of roadbed
has been made to draw from the pock
ets of the people every cent that the
traffic would bear. The public has
rebelled —naturally in the course of
time it would; but it isn’t going to
smash or confiscate anything. It only
wants fair treatment, and it is go
ing to have it.
As to this particular train, the Cen
tral railroad can say it doesn’t pay
until it is black in the face; it can
arrange figures upon figures to prove
it, but everybody .knows why the train
was taken off.
It was a very foolish act —as will
be discovered.—Eatonton Messenger.