Page:Earle, Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty, 1920, 110.jpg

110 —indeed, a curious travesty on justice—that the railway, which, by reason of its low cost of transportation, has practically destroyed the farming interests of the East, should be regarded by the farmer of the West as the vampire sucking out the blood of his agricultural profits; and yet the Western lands could have been opened to seaboard markets only by means of it and its low rates. The Eastern farmer must justly regard the railway, and the resultant competition of the richer farm land in the West, as the cause of his ruin and the force which has driven him to new employments; yet the Western farmer would not now be in existence if it were not for the railway. The proof that it has served the Western farmer well is to be found in the sad ruins of Eastern agriculture." And Professor Laughlin might have added to this that even now in his new occupation, the Eastern farmer, as well as the rest of the community, has to be enormously taxed to pay for the inadequacy of the returns to those who have thus aided in his ruin.

To the writer it seems that only second to the dangers of destroying Liberty is the danger of overburdening the Supreme Court of the United States. It was America's greatest invention in government—that it should be respected, even revered, is in the same degree of importance in the safeguarding of Liberty as that free competition should not be disturbed as the only safe method of fixing commodity prices. It is futile, therefore, to attempt to place upon it duties impossible of performance. Nor as shown by the cases might the Court take kindly to having thrust upon it the task of becoming the final arbiter in the "pricing" of commodities. The thinker may understand that the fault was legislative, not judicial, but the mass of men will always feel that there is nothing so unsuccessful or