Theoretically, all communities, and all shippers are in favor of equal laws and equal rates, but practically many, yes, most of them, will have a mental reservation of a liberal rebate in some form exclusively for themselves.

This craving appetite of the crafty, sharp operator was satisfied before the enactment of the law by fixing the rate, say thirty per cent. above where it was intended to be maintained, and privately giving to each of them a rebate of thirty per cent. Each labored under the fond delusion that he was one of the priviledged and favored few and was happy. The law at once destroyed this delusion, and protected the rights of the occasional and small shipper, in securing for him service for the same price that it was rendered to others, and save alone in what is known as commissions on passenger traffic, which are sometimes used for that purpose. Such a thing as a rebate or draw back in any form is now practically unknown. The same may be said of Inter-State passes and passes to shippers to influence business, which would in effect be the cutting of freight rates, and would create an unlawful discrimination, for the doing of which the amendment to the law prescribes a most potent reason for a strict observance of the rule, viz: a penalty in addition to the ordinary fine of not to exceed five thousand dollars prescribed for any violation of the law, * and "imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term not exceeding two years, or both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court."

*

*

It was a singular omission on the part of Congress that there should be no provision for the punishment of the man who received the benefits of the violation of the law-say the man who rode upon the pass-when it was so amended as to provide for imprisoning in the penitentiary the man whose only benefit was the doing of a favor or giving pleasure to another-the man who gave the pass. This same amendment provided that: "Any common carrier

or officer or agent thereof, or any person acting for or employed by such corporation, who, by means of false billing, false classification, false weighing, or false report of weight, or by any other device or means, shall knowingly and wilfully assist, or shall willingly suffer or permit any person or persons to obtain transportation for property at less than the regular rates then established and enforced on the line of transportation of such common carrier, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be subject to a fine of five thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term not exceeding two years or both, at the discretion of the court," and provides a like penalty for "any person who shall deliver property for transportation

*

*

*

*

*

or

for whom as consignor or consignee any such carrier shall transport property who shall knowingly and wilfully by false billing, false classifications, false weighing, false representation of the contents of the package or false report of weight, or by any other device or means whether with or without the consent of the carrier, its agent or agents, obtain transportation for such property at less than the regular rates."

These salutary provisions have produced a very marked effect, and in course of time when the machinery of the law gets in full operation, when it is known that after discovery will come prompt conviction, this class of abuses, heretofore quite common, now seldom seen, will, owing to the facility of detection, be no longer known. The provision against pooling, has I think, fully accomplished the purpose intended by it. While it has obliterated one of the most obnoxious features of the

old methods by which unjust discrimination and extortion were often perpetrated upon individuals and communities, it has, too, carried away a harmonizing power necessary for the protection alike of the interests of the roads and of the shippers, for which some provision, that will accomplish the purpose, must be substituted. Considering the law solely with reference to the past, from a business standpoint, and without reference to it as an experiment, its existence may be said to have been detrimental, except to the few favored interests to which it has been profitable. But take it as a whole, considering that it proclaimed a new era in which individuals and communities were to be protected from oppression and encroachment upon their common law rights, by giving them an adequate remedy in every case, and no longer compelling them to depend upon so-called remedies that, if resorted to even successfully, would be more destructive to their interest than the original wrong done them; and assuming, as I doubt not we may, that it will be amended from time to time, that the defects made manifest by its practical workings may be cured-and speedily, too, when ascertained-a great and permanent good has been done.

The railways, the highways of the nation, must be permanently controlled by law, as such highways.

It is to be deplored that the power of the general government was not earlier invoked and exercised, not only with reference to the operation, but regulating the construction of roads.

The law, it seems to me, must be so amended as to provide for Inter-State carriers engaged exclusively in Inter-State traffic controlled solely by Federal law, or all carriers engaged in Inter-State traffic must be so governed.

"No man can serve two masters," and no carrier can obey State and Federal power in the irreconcilable conflict of interests that daily arise.

All roads connect with each other and, like all rivers, end at the ocean, but, unlike the rivers, are open to commerce from their source to the sea; they are the substitute of modern civilization for navigable streams, and wherever the mail car, the craft of the government, goes, there should the exclusive jurisdiction of the general government be maintained. To regulate commerce, the power cannot be exercised upon the thing moved-the subject of commerce, upon the box of merchandise or passenger, with one rule governing the movement of the box or passenger destined to a point within the limits of the State, and another and conflicting rule for the box and passenger, passing over the State line. It must regulate the carrier with one rule, alike for the movement of all boxes and all passengers, irrespective of their point of origin or destination. Not only should this exclusive power be exercised over all railroads, but it should govern alike all common carriers of every description, engaged in Inter-State and Inter-National commerce. It is provided that: "The Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states." The subject, Commerce, is so related in all its various parts, Inter-State and Inter-National, by water and by rail, any attempt to regulate part without regulating the whole will result in the establishment of greater evils than those sought to be remedied. Where there is legal restriction, right and justice demand that there should be legal protection. Where a combatant is disarmed, he must be protected from the assaults of his adversary. If, in the competition between rail and water, the railway carrier is restricted and made to give to large waterless districts of country all the benefits of water

competition, the waterway carrier should at least be compelled to give the benefits of rail competition at all points, and be governed by the long and short haul clause. The extortion and unjust discrimination of the waterway carrier, is as great a wrong as that of the railway carrier. To allow the waterway carrier to collect such rates as he can get at non-competitive points to enable him to recoup losses at competitive points, or to raise and lower his rates at will, while the railway carrier cannot, is manifestly inequitable and unjust. If to-day it is found that the grain to be moved from Chicago to the sea-board is more than double the car capacity and available tonnage, the waterway carrier will raise his rates for to-morrow; the railway carrier must give ten days' notice of his purpose to do so. What will result? Why, to bring in a whole fleet that will carry off every bushel before a car load can be moved. Why the railway carrier should be held, while the waterway carrier batters him, I cannot see, unless it be considered in the nature of a just punishment for the wrongs committed by the railway when it was unrestricted; but I submit, there should somewhere be a limitation to this; in my opinion, I think in the opinion of most fair men, that limitation has been reached when all old scores should be adjusted at once, or wiped out; and care should be taken that hereafter even-handed justice, under the operation of law, should be dealt out alike to the owners of the car and the owners of its load, the owners of the craft and the owners of its cargo. With the interposition of a law potent in its provisions, capable of enforcement, enabling all parties in interest to obtain speedy judicial interpretation of its terms, without conflict between State and Federal authority, the time will soon be reached when a reasonable, fair and stable rate can be obtained everywhere,-where there are not, as well as where there are, competing lines.

There are five great railroads betwen Chicago and Kansas City; any two, indeed, I think any one, of them can carry all the traffic.

The sum of the cost to the shippers, passengers, or consumers of all this traffic, must be a reasonable profit on the investment, taxes and operating expenses, including five full sets of officials and employés.

If all the traffic was diverted to two roads and the others obliterated, the increased expenses of those two roads would be but little more than the cost of the extra train service, and the amount saved, the difference in the cost in doing the business, would, in from five to seven years, pay the entire cost of the three roads obliterated, and allow the traffic to be done ever afterward at a reduction of from 25 to 40 per cent. of the old rate of the five roads. Roads cannot, should not, be obliterated, but similar cases should not be produced in sections where they do not now exist, by unnecessary railroad construction. There is no more practical sense in building two railroads side by side, than there would be in building two wagon roads along side of each other. The cost of construction and maintenance is doubled without any additional advantage whatever, where the first road is,under proper control.

The operation of the law has been a clumsy, and to the commercial prosperity of large sections of the country, an expensive, experiment, and to our form of government, a dangerous one; but has been a move in the right direction, namely, the making of the common carriers of the country, controlling its highways, subordinate to law, and compelling them to respect the rights of individuals and communities.

Last week, one of the most successful railroad managers in the country said to me: "I am tired; I am going to quit; I can't stand this new order of things. I can't run a railroad with a copy of the Revised Statutes under my arm. Those of us who came up from telegraph messenger boys, by the operating table, from brakemen, conductors, engineers and station agents, have had our turn. Why, it will soon get to be so an engineer can't blow his whistle without running the risk of getting into the penitentiary, or a manager make a move without running the risk of bankrupting his road. It is the lawyers' innings now; they know how to keep

out of the penitentiary."

There is much in what my friend said. But who are the lawyers? Not the men who simply have diplomas or license to practice law. No, not at all. They are the men who do, or can, practice law successfully. Law schools make nominal lawyers by the score, and set them around upon the benches like models of clay. In one in each hundred of them the judicial germ is vitalized, and a practical lawyer is produced; the ninety-and-nine, like so many unfructified eggs in the nest, if used promptly when fresh, are good for other purposes, but if kept, rapidly deteriorate and produce an intolerable stench, which often clings to the neighboring fledgling, much to his discomfort and often to his detriment. The talent to be a lawyer may be cultivated, but cannot be created by man. It is a gift of God. He who possesses it, has the faculty of readily acquiring a knowledge of the intricacies of every trade, calling and profession. This faculty enables him to arrive at correct conclusions in the multifarious controversies of life, and to read human nature like an open book.

Ordinarily a man may rely upon fair success in life by the development of a faculty to excel in one thing, but the lawyer, to secure success, must be able to excel in all things, and to apply his talents to every field of human knowledge, where the interests of his various clients may be found. More than this, he must not only be able to move things, but to move men, and impress upon them his ideas, purposes and aims, and to secure their hearty, uniform cooperation in the execution of his plans and the accomplishment of his designs; so constituted that his preceptions of right and wrong are as clear as the unclouded sky, and with a conscience as sensitive and true to the right, as the needle to the pole, guiding and controlling his every action in life; so controlling his nature and his growth, until every lineament of his countenance, to all honest men, is a proclamation of honesty and truth; so convincing, that none such will doubt his word or question the purity of his motives. Yet, after all, practicing law is very much like swimming,—easy enough after you know how; but, unlike it, ninety-and-nine sink as soon as they lose bottom, or they must restrict themselves to the limit of paddling around where it is only chin deep, doing a great deal of splashing, taking frequent soundings with the toe, and making but little headway. Yet, just like swimming, after you leave bottom, it makes no difference to you whether the depth be seven or seventy feet; whether you strike across the mill pond of the Circuit Court or the deep waters of the courts of last resort-the same strokes, the same principles, will carry you over one that will carry you over the other, and if you relax your efforts or fail in the application of correct principles, you will as effectually drown in the one case as in the other.

In the country they will fish you out and express some sympathy for the "toad that attempted to turn bullfrog;" while in the city your failure, if it attracts any

attention at all, will provoke disgust and probably the inquiry from some passerby, "If the fool could not swim why did he go in there?" And echo answers, why? The interest of your clients are to you ideal, they have no specific gravity. The millions of a Gould, Sage or Vanderbilt, require no more effect to buoy them over, than does the comparatively small interest of your country neighbor; nay, not half so much, for if by some mischance you lose a million or two for them, they have many more millions left than you have lost, but to your client in the country it may mean his all, and the failure may drive him to poverty, suffering and death. A consciousness of this may make your heart heavy, weigh you down, disconcert your efforts and endanger your success; or if you have true pluck, "real sand," will inspire you with greater energy and endurance, and keep your head level to the end.

It is suggested "the fees! the fees! the difference in the fees is very great." No, gentlemen, you are mistaken, there is no difference in the fees, they are exactly alike in both cases. You simply get as a net result your board and clothes, except that in the country you have a more healthy way of living, and will doubtless there live longer and be much happier and better prepared to die when the time comes. Bear in mind that fees never are and never were the motive that inspired a successful lawyer: success was and always will be the motive, and the fee an immaterial incident to him.

For the profession, a new era has begun: it has been greatly accelerated, if it was not precipitated, by the Inter-State Commerce law. Hereafter, ninety per cent. of its work will be in the office or in the busy affairs of life, either directing or counseling and guiding those who do direct and control, the great financial operations of the world.

The great lawyers, the successful operators of the age, are country-bred. The great cities go to the country alike for their horses and their men, that they may drive one and be led by the other.

Among our unassuming brethren here from the country circuits will be found one at least, who, having crossed the circuit pond successfully again and again, will launch out in the great metropolis and win the right and place of leadership there. To him whose inclination leads that way, I tender encouragement and sympathy; encouragement to accomplish his desires, in the gratification of a laudable ambition, sympathy for him in the trials and troubles that he must endure; with the assurance of my conviction that however great his achievement or renowned he may become by their accomplishments, no victory, no success that he will attain, or praises that may be showered upon him for his ability or powers, will give him a tithe of the unalloyed pleasure that he will receive when he comes back here among his brethren of the bar, receives a sturdy shake, an earnest cheer or other heartfelt recognition, as that same "old stub and twist country lawyer" back again.

"And as in duty bound your orator will ever pray, etc."