Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1887 — INTERSTATE COMMISSION. [ARTICLE]

INTERSTATE COMMISSION.

Judge Cooley, Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, has adI dressed the following letter to the other ; members of the commission for their ap- , proval- ¥ . ;

The Interstate Commerce Commission bos had transmitted to it from the State Department, a communication from William D H. > Washington, United States commercial agent i at loudon, Ontario, in which that officer lava I before the department the disastrous effects of ! the recent net to regulate commerce upon the trade of the United Slates with Canada, and I gives instances to prove their alarming nature. ; From the communication a being sent to the. [ commission 1 infer the department expects 1 some notice to be taken of it, and, though the I CouiniiMioiiera are just now separated, I ;-venture to express my Own ' thoughts. Mr. Washington's tears of disastrous consequences are. I am, Weil assured, excessive. They will not to any great extent be realized. Some ini conveniences must necessarily arise from putt ting in lorce a law which attempts such com nderable changes, but they will be great r at first than after -the working of .the law has become tin n nttood. and greatest while palsies are hesitating to act because of doubts of constructions. Probably no important act ever passed by Congress has elicited such a variety . of" opinions and with such rad-ieardifferencCs as the one in question. The terms of the ■ Act are not as clear as they uiight have- bden L but it should also be said that the state of mind in which xiersons differently cirounistanced have come to an exam-/ iuution o( the law has not been conducive to harmonious * views. A careful reading of Mr. Washington's letter seems to show that the consequences a hich he attributes to the law fiow frpm the construction railroad managers have imt upon it,and which may or may not be correct. n a recent visit of the Commissioners to the Southwest it was made very apparent in the testimony taken that some persons were excited’ by fears of the destruction of their business which bad no other basis than views of the law which were so erroneous tnat it would seem they ought not to have been entertained by anvone. I cannot help, thinking tnat equally unfounded views have had much to do with the disturbances of trade of which Mr. Washington spe iks, anll that as these are corrected the disturbances will become comparatively unimportant. 1 shall remain in that belief until further exjierienee of the law shall show its error. . Interstate Commissioner' Schoonmaker denounces as “inexcusably erroneous” the statement that,any discrimination has been made by the commission in favor of the Southern railroads, or that relief has been refused to Northern roads.