Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1905 — RATES UNREASONABLE. [ARTICLE]

RATES UNREASONABLE.

Raftlroaris to AU Kinds of Plana to Plunder the People. The way the railroads’ attorneys are struggling to get their clients clear of government control of unreasonable rates and the expedients they are offering to fool the people show they are trying to earn their large salaries. The latest suggestion is to place the railroads under bond to secure differences in imposed charges pending final adjustment. Some of the railroad managers are said to be willing to agree to the plan of placing In escrow money which Is in dispute as the result of differences between rates fixed by the railroads and those named by the Interstate commerce commission. The bonding proposition would be disastrous to the small shipper and expensive to the larger ones. The shipper would be subject to all the willful and unnecessary delay that the railroad attorneys so well Know how to accomplish, and after final judgment bad been rendered a civil suit on the bond would be necessary, with its further vexatious delays. It would not be so bad if the disputed payment were placed in escrow, the money to be delivered to the shipper or passenger In the event of the commission’s rate being upheld by the courts. But why evade the plain and easy way to protect the public—that when on complaint the commission has Investigated and found the railroad charge unreasonable and has decided what Is a reasonable rate the rate decided upon by the commission shall go Into effect until It Is set aside by the courts. That would protect the people and could not Injure the railroads, for the commission would have no object In making a rate that was not ample to pay the railroads all they would be reasonably entitled to.