appears in the State Constitution.

Article XII, Section 22, of the Constitution, provides that the Railroad
Commissioners "shall have the power and it shall be their duty to
establish rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and
freight by railroad or other transportation companies."

Further on in the same section, it is provided that "any railroad
corporation or transportation company which shall fail or refuse to
conform to such rates as shall be established by such Commissioners, or
shall charge rates in excess thereof, * * * shall be fined not exceeding
$20,000 for each offense."

The dispute between those who stood for maximum rates - that is to say,
the members of the machine lobby, the machine Senators, the Southern
Pacific attorneys and those who wanted absolute rates - namely, the
anti-machine Senators and the attorneys representing large shipping
interests - waxed hot over the words in the above quotation which are
printed in Italics.

The advocates of the absolute rate held, with at least apparent reason,
that the words "fail to conform to such rates" mean just what the
dictionaries say they do: That the railroad charging a rate in excess of
that fixed by the Railroad Commissioners, or a rate less than that fixed
by the Commissioners, is not conforming to the rates. Such, at least,
seems reasonable construction of a very simple phrase.

But not so, insisted the railroad lobby. That aggregation of patriots
skimmed over the words "fail to conform to such rates," and saw only,
"or shall charge in excess thereof." Inasmuch, the pro-railroad element