RAILWAY LEGISLATION 14! 



The suit against the Chicago and Alton for violation of the 

 long and short haul clause of the act to prevent extortion and 

 unjust discrimination was brought by the commissioners De- 

 cember 5, 1871, in the circuit court of McLean County. Here 

 again the facts were admitted by the defendants, i. e., charging 

 a higher rate on shipments of lumber from Chicago to Lexington, 

 no miles, than the rate from Chicago to Bloomington through 

 Lexington, a distance of 126 miles. The case was argued in 

 July, 1872. The defendant's attorneys, asserting that the act 

 of 1871 was a violation of the constitution of the United States, 

 pleaded the charter of the company as a contract under which 

 it had the right to fix the charges, subject only to the require- 

 ment that they be reasonable. It was further alleged that the 

 rate to Lexington was a reasonable one, the rate to Bloomington 

 being fixed unreasonably low in order to compete with the 

 Illinois Central and therefore no criterion of the reasonableness 

 of the former rate. In reply, the counsel for the people declared 

 the question at issue to be the relation of the act of 1871 to the 

 provision of the United States constitution concerning contracts. 

 It was maintained that the legislature could not, by contract, 

 deprive the state of the right to prevent unjust discrimination 

 and extortion, a right which was a valid exercise of the police 

 powers and inherent in the sovereignty of the state. Judge 

 Tipton took the case under advisement and in November, 1872, 

 filed a written opinion for the people in which he took the posi- 

 tion that no part of the contract between the state and the 

 company was impaired by the act of 1871, and that the state 

 retained the right, in spite of the charter of the railroad, to 

 prevent unjust discrimination. 1 



in the " Additional Report " and the impression is given that the constitutionality 

 of the law was the only point involved. Railroad Commission, Reports, 1872, 

 pp. 21-24. 



Inaccurate statements with regard to this case are made in Davidson and Stuve, 

 Illinois, 1028; Gordon, Illinois Railway Legislation, 35; Moses, Illinois, ii. 1060; 

 Governor Cullom, in Railroad Commission, Reports, 1879, P- 266. Most of these 

 assert that no appeal was taken from the decision of the circuit court and give the 

 impression that the validity of the law was involved in the final decision. 



1 Railroad Commission, Reports, 1872, p. 8, 1873, P- IO - The briefs of counsel 

 and the decision of Judge Tipton are to be found in ibid., 1872, pp. 46-114. See 



