294 THE GROUNDSWELL, 



JUDGE TIPTON S DECISION. 



The case was heard before Judge Tipton, who gave judg 

 ment against the company. Judge Tipton delivered an 

 elaborate opinion, in which he considered fully the charac 

 ter of the laws under which the suit was brought, and cited 

 numerous authorities to prove that corporations have no 

 rights that can be maintained against the welfare of the 

 people, and that railroad companies can not be so hedged 

 about by special charters that they can override and oppose 

 the public by unjust discriminations and extortionate charges. 

 He said : 



&quot;The very object of granting charters to railroad companies 

 by the State, was that the people should have the right of trans 

 portation of the products of the country to and from the great 

 centers of trade, without unjust discrimination. The particular 

 method by which this object should be attained rests only in the 

 discretion of the legislature. If it has the power to legislate on the 

 subject at all, its legislation must control, whether the courts deem 

 the provisions wise or unwise. The legislature has determined that 

 discrimination between communities that is, a greater charge for a 

 less distance over the same road is unjust and hurtful to the inter 

 ests of the people at large. 



&quot;The effect of such discrimination is to transfer, by artificial 

 means, the natural advantages possessed by one community to an 

 other less favorably situated. To allow this is to subordinate the 

 general interests of the public to the real or supposed advantage of 

 the particular railroad corporation by whose action the unnatural 

 effect is produced, and would be to abandon the right and duty of 

 the legislature to afford by law equal protection to all citizens of the 

 State. By former reasoning it will be seen that railroad corpora 

 tions do not hold their property and franchises by a higher tenure 

 than the citizen holds his farm or other property. ***** 



&quot; Railways are improved public highways, and therefore can be 

 constructed by the aid of the right of eminent domain ; and the cor 

 porations so created are public agents, created for the practical 



