New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-01-10
THE REAGAN BILL.

1.-THE passage OF the Reagan Dill Ill Iho Houso
must be regarded as another illustration OF the
mischievous tendency of the popular chamber
in modern legislative bodies to throw upon the
Senate the responsibility of defeating measures
which DESPITE their impracticabilty have some
public support. The Reagan bill belongs to a
class of measures which are obsolete. 1t Is
based upon a theory which experience has
shown to be false All practical experiment in
transportation goes to prove that attempts 10
regulate it arbitrarily on general principles
must fail and chat they cannot produce the
results aimed at. but are sure to cause confusion
and injury to all the interests concerned. That
the House should have passed so crude ana
futile law is the more surprising when 1t Is
remembered that experience clearly points ont
the only method by which sautary regulation
of TRANSFORMATION can be secured. The COM
mission system is the only one which, either in
this country or England, has had good results
and the plain and unmistakable reason of this is
that the commission system proceeds by careful
investigation of individual cases, takes into
account all the factors, and seeks adjustments
which will combine justice to the companies
with accommodation and equity for the public.
In the Reagan BILL moreover, principles are
assumed to be true which cannot be conceded.
The principle of the higher charge for the
shorter haul is, for instance. condemned IN
defiance of facts the truth being that the SER
vice of railroads to the public would he greatly
reduced, and their area of business curtailed,
if they were prohibited from putting lopg-hau
rates at minimum in the many cases in'which
that arrangement alone renders the carriage OF
cheap freight possible. Nor is it possible to
determine the freight schedules of roads which
mass through varied regions, each having its
peculiar needs and produce, upon any rigid
PLAN while it is clear that such questions can
only be settled intcligcntly by those who have
all the specific facts before them, and are thus
in position to Judge of the consequences OF
every change upon the many interests involved.
All these considerations are doubtless trltc,
vet ii is plain that the House ignored them or
il could not have passed so bad measure As the
Reagan bill. The regulation and supervision OF
the transportation interest cannot be thus
affected, nor is such legislation justified. II
competition fails to produce the changes and
reforms demanded by the public. then the COM
mission system should he rcsorted to; but the
Reagan bill can only do what the Granger laws
did namely, hinder all remedial action by
blocking the way with an imperative statute.
There is no probability that the Senate would
commit itself TO this Objectionable measure,
even il il had time 10 consider il during the
present session. But considering the press OF
important legislation and the treaties which are
before that body, it is very unlikely that the
Reagan bill will be reached at all. If 1t H. the
country will expect from the senate sounder
craftsmanship and higher intelligence than the
House has shown on this question, and there is
no ground for experimenting disappointment.