488 
Annual He port of the 
lation that would injure one would injure the other. If, therefore, 
the legislation of last winter shall prove unjust and injurious to the 
roads, it will be equally so to the interests of the people. It is not, 
however, my province in this address to discuss, much less to deter¬ 
mine that question. I am not sufficiently familiar with railway 
charges to discuss the matter intelligently, and I have not sufficient 
faith and confidence in the judgment of the members of the last leg¬ 
islature on that subject, to rely implicitly on what they did as being 
exactly the right thing. Indeed I think it would be marvelous, if 
the legislature had hit the nail exactly on the head, and fixed, the 
first time trying, exactly the right charges in every particular. We 
can therefore easily understand how it is possible that injustice may 
have been done to the roads. If by that law the roads can be re¬ 
quired to carry freight for less than it costs to carry it, or for less 
than will enable them to pay expenses and to pay interest on their 
just debts, and pay to those who have invested their money to build 
the roads a reasonable interest on the investment, then the law can¬ 
not be justified or defended. 
If on the other hand it should be made to appear after a full in¬ 
vestigation that the law is reasonably just in the rates of charges 
fixed, it would be difficult to find an excuse for the course pursued 
in reference to it by the railroads. 
These are questions which, however, we cannot settle, and which 
can only be settled and finally determined after a careful and thor¬ 
ough investigation by the properly constituted authorities whose 
business and whose duty it is to know. 
One thing, however, we may regard as settled now and forever, 
that is the general power of the state to regulate every great in¬ 
terest within its borders, and especiaily that it has the power to 
regulate the general management of railroads. And it will be wise, 
we think, so to exercise it that the power shall forever remain in 
the state. Already it has been suggested that the whole subject 
had better be transferred to the Congress of the United States, and 
some specious and plausible reasons have been assigned for it; but 
I think it would be a sad day for the people of this state, and for 
the people of every state, when they let this power pass out of their 
own hands. These corporations are the creations of the state, from 
the state they derive all their powers and privileges, and to the 
state alone they should be responsible for the manner in which 
