held, as the Constitution says that the railroads shall not charge in
excess of the rates fixed by the Railroad Commissioners, the railroads
are at liberty to reduce the rates as fixed by the Commissioners at
will. In other words, according to the pro-railroad element, the
Constitution authorizes the fixing of maximum rates only.

The pro-railroad claquers even went so far as to claim that the Supreme
Court has decided that the maximum rate is the only rate that can be
fixed under the State Constitution. They referred the doubtful to the
notorious decision in the Fresno passenger rate case known as the Edson
decision.

But no question of maximum rates was involved in the Edson case. To be
sure, Chief Justice Beatty took occasion to say in his opinion in that
case that his understanding had been that the State Constitution
provides for the maximum rate. But this had no place in the decision,
was purely dictum, and is so regarded.

Attorney-General Webb has an ingenious but very plausible explanation of
Judge Beatty's much-discussed observation. General Webb points out that
previous to the adoption of the present State Constitution - 1879 -
Justice Beatty had been engaged in the active practice of the law in
this State. Up to the time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1879
the maximum rate had prevailed in California. About that time, Judge
Beatty went to Nevada and was absent from the State for several years.
Returning to California, after the State Constitution had been adopted,
Judge Beatty found no case in which the duties of the Railroad
Commissioners had been involved, until the Edson case came up.

"I am of the opinion," said General Webb in discussing this point, "that