Abstract

The Railroads Win the O'Fallon Case

Since the Dred Scott decision in March, 1857, the Supreme Court has adjudicated three momentous economic or business cases: in 1895 the income-tax case, in which, by a five to four vote, the court reversed its own decision of the previous year and staved off a graduated federal income tax for eighteen years, in fact until the Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution broke the impasse; in 1911 the Standard Oil or "rule of reason" decision which pulled the teeth of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, defeating the purpose of the Fifty-first Congress, which was to discourage industrial monopoly and keep down prices; and now the St. Louis and O'Fallon railroad valuation, or more accurately speaking, rate case, which, will prove to be the most momentous decision of the three.