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Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909 by Franklin Hichborn
page 145 of 366 (39%)

On the other hand, Senator Cutten, himself a lawyer and a close student
of the legal questions involved, stated that while he had thought
originally that the maximum rate is the only constitutional rate that
can be fixed, he had been forced to come to the conclusion that the
absolute rate alone is constitutional.

But in the end the Wright bill and not the Stetson bill passed the
Senate. It passed after a day of debate in which the issue became
clouded, if anything, worse than at any stage of the proceedings.
Leavitt and Wolfe, with Wright chipping in with a me-too word now and
then, led the debate in favor of the Wright bill. Senators Stetson,
Boynton, Cutten, Roseberry and Miller led the fight for the Stetson
bill. Significant enough was the fact that the line-up of Senate leaders
was precisely the same as that in the fight which the machine carried on
against the Direct Primary bill.

Miller's argument in favor of the Stetson bill showed the confusion
under which the advocates of effective railroad regulation were
laboring:

"If we adopt the Wright bill," said Miller, "the railroads will be
satisfied and never dispute it in the Courts. Whereas, by the adoption
of the Stetson bill the railroads will almost be compelled to appeal to
the Courts, and then we shall have a quick decision on the question in
which we are all interested. If the Courts sustain the Stetson bill, we
shall have a law that will do all we want for the present."[64]

The debate on the measures was on a motion by Stetson that the Stetson
bill be substituted for the Wright bill. In this Stetson made a serious
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