Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1887 — THE INTER-STATE COMMISSION. [ARTICLE]

THE INTER-STATE COMMISSION.

Will the Long and Short HauT Clause be Suspended. From Washington, D. C., we learn much interest has recently been shown in a quiet way in the doings of the Inter-State Commissioners. It has boen learned that the railroad managers all over the country are awaiting with impatience a final decision of the application of the Southern roads for a permanent suspension of the long and short haul clause. There-is no reason for this impatience, as the ninety days’ temporary suspension does-not expire till July 5, The seventy-five days’ reSpit given the transcontinental roads will be up a little later. Since the Commissioners got back from the South much of their time has been spent in executive session, and it is presumed that the testimony taken is by this time thoughly digested. It is certain that everybody who had facts to present on either side has had a chance to do so. There have been rumors that the Commissioners are having much trouble in reaching an understanding about the Southern roads. One story has placed Messrs. Cooley and Morrison as opposing further suspension and Bragg, Schoonmaker, and Walker as favoring it. Other rumors have reversed this, and every Commissioner has been guessed to be on both sides of the question. As the discussions are entirely private, there is plenty of room to guess what the interchange of opinions may be, but no one ventures to predict the Anal decisioa. It would probably not be going beyond the boundsvjjf,, reason to say that a majority of the Commissioners think the weight of the evidence as applied to the Southern roads was favorable to a suspension. They came back from the South disappointed at the meagreness of the protests against suspension. And if the_decision wei e to be made for the Southern roads entirely independent of the rest of the country there is little doubt what it would be. But the proposal to give the lines south of the Ohio river relief has”to be judged with regard to the whole country. When the transcontinental lines were putting in their testimony tor a suspension no one who heard it thought a strong case had been made out. Yet there are not many who think the Southern roads should be given an exemption which is denied the Pacific companies. The commission has also been met with a widespread popular fear least, if the stretch of country south of the Ohio be exempted the most important provision of the law, a precedent be made which will in the end nullify the whole legislation. The conservatism of the commission in suspending the law temporarily at the outset was approved on the theory that it .wonld tend to aliay many of the.. evils pictured by its-opponents. But a permanent suspension wa3 not dreamed of, and the weight of public opinion has been that if real; hardships are worked Congress would remedy -them. The decision to be made within the next weeks on the petition of the Southern roads for a suspension will probably determine the character of the additional legislation that may be looked for from Congress.