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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 Knockout for ...Rheumatism Not a Patent Medicine but a medicine that has won its name from the many marvelous cures it has made—of Rheumatism, Kid ney and Bladder Troubles. It is a medicine put up ex pressly for what it is recommend ed and is honestly and scientific ally compounded. Every bottle just the same and each bottle made one at a time. Made in the old fashioned way, out of the best ingredients in a crude state and not concentrated. I have yet to find a case of Rheumatism it has failed to cure. Testimonial. PRICE $1.50 PER QUART. All orders shipped same day re ceived. DR. P. Z. FRETWELL, Conyers, Ga. 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.