New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-01-23

The report of the Hepburn Committee, the
most important portions of which are printed
elsewhere Is careful and elaborate. II proves
an industrious disposition on the part OF the
Committee, and a painstaking desire to do
Justice between the people and the railroads.
This may truthfully be said to be the most
encouraging feature of the report There
has been evident care to avoid a course
of hostility toward the railroad cOmpa-
MES, and on the other hand, TO avoid
any action which would be prejudicial to
the interests of the public. We can
fully realize now for the first time, how
sadly the Committee was misrcpTeSented the
other day when most of our contemporaries
published MIR. Simon Sterne's bill rs the bill APP
proved by the Committee. The Sterne bill,
though it came from the representative OF the
New York Chamber Of Commerce III this in
curry embodied spirit OF untamed GTangerlsm
which would be received with some surprise,
at this day, even i'll Wisconsin and Illinois.
The conclusions of the Hepburn Committee
show that its members appreciate the neces-
sity OF refraiuIng from an attempt at govern
ing the railroads too much. The three MEM
bers who present dissenting views may be de-
fined, without offence, as the friends OF the
railroads, inasmuch as they oppose the APP
pOintment of Commission. The majority
arc willing to 90 as lar as the pubic
interests demand in putting checks upon
these great corporations, but they new
ertheless recognize the fact that the bust
ness of railroad management, to be successful,
requires greater freedom " than any other
To use their own pithy expression, Railroads
"must be run by brains and not by legsla-
"tion.n The report breathes this liberal and
intelligent spirit throughout, and, on what
ever grounds it may be found necessary here
after to criticise it, the railroads cannot claim
that it is animated by hostility to them.
Where Justice demands word of praise for
the railroads, the Committee does not seem to
have grudged it. The present management
of the New-YOrk Central is commended as
being in the interest of the stockholders the
efforts of President Jewett and his associates
to administer successfully debt-rldden prop
erty are cordially recognized the contract OF
the Wagner Palace Car Company with the
New-York Central is declared to be fair
one, and not prejudicial to the interests of the
Central's stockholders.
On the other hand, the Committee does not
hesitate to denounce the oil monopoly i'll I'M
measured terms to expose the full extent to
which the crime of stock watering has been
practised to lay stress upon the way in which
the railroads literally bought the Railroad
Commission, which was once created. out OF
existence; and to make large number OF
recommendations which the railroads will
probably resist by every means In their
power The Committee proposes that Com
mission shall be created, of three persons,
with power to investigate and recommend
not as in the extraordinary bill put for
ward the other day, with power to fix
rates and exercise dictatorship over
the roads. 1t is suggested that one
member of the Commission shall be a
railroad man, another representative OF
the commercial Interests of New York, and
another a representative of the interlOr-one
of the three to be man OF legal training.
The Committee proposes also that the annual
reports shall be made reports in fact, and not,
as now, in name merely that the issue OF
bonds convertible into stock, followed by their
conversion and the sale of the stock, shall be
prohibited that checks shall be placed upon
the watering of stock in consultations; that
the issue of stock shall be publicly known, and
that the consent of the people shall fist be
obtained through the proper officials that
determinations in like and contemporaneous
shipments shall be prevented etc. At
the same time the Committee admits that
it can suggest no fixed ratio for
freight charges between points within and
without the State, or between points within
the State. 1t is declared that a pro rata
freight law would be prejudcial to the inter
ests of the public, for whose protection it has
been SO often and so unwisely advocated. and
the plan of announcing rates publicly, with a
considerable interval before they are to go
INTO effect, is plainly shown to be mpIacti-
cable.
There is much matter here for future con
sideration. 1t is sufficient now to testify to
the honest and judicial spirit in which the
Committee has performed its labors.