1907 - Can't Flag Mail Train

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Roanoke Times - December 10, 1907

Can't Flag Mail Train

Washington, Dec. 9 - The question whether a railroad company can be 
compelled on the order of a state railroad commission to stop its 
fast mail trains when engaged in interstate commerce was decided 
today by the supreme court of the United States in the negative of 
the case of The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company vs. the Board of 
Railroad Commissioners of South Carolina. The suit arose in 
connection with an effort on the part of citizens of the town of 
Latta, S. C. to secure the stopping of two such trains which daily 
pass through the town upon begin flagged, and the commission ordered 
that stops should be made whenever the signal should be hoisted. The 
railroad company resisted the ruling as unreasonable.
   The state supreme court decided against the company, and it 
immediately appealed to the supreme court of the United States, with 
the result that the relief sought was obtained. The opinion of the 
court was delivered by Justice Peckham and reversed the decision of 
the Sought Carolina court. The opinion held the order of the 
commission to be an interference with interstate commerce.

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link