Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-18
LAST NIGHTS NEWS.
THE RAILROAD TRANSPODTA.
Ti0N QUESTION.
Fatal Snowslide-WashIng Mat
fers-Type-Setting Contest
Foreign Affairs.
ESPECIAL DISPATCHES To THE RrooRD-uxoal
DOMESTIC.
Interstate Railroad Transportation.

Interstate Railroad Transportation.
WASHINGTON, January 18th. = Senator
Culloms select committee on interstate
railroad transportation will probably re-
port TO the Senate tomorrow or Tuesday
an original interstate commerce bill, and at |
the same time submit an exhaustive report
IN It's support. The committee, which |
spent a good part of the summer in in |
vestigations, have been holding daily |
sessions since the assembling of Congress. |
In addition TO two or three volumes of oral |
testimony, which the committee has taken
IN Its pursuit OF information upon the sub |
ject an appendix, containing a number of |
interesting papers from leading authorities, |
has been printed for the use of the com
mlttee, ana Will be made public with the |
report.
Leonard B. Kirnan, Chairman of the
New York Railroad Commission, con- |
tributes statement supplemental to the |
views he expressed orally to the commit |
tee He deals, first, with the history of |
the contest between railroads and its pat |
rons, in the presence of which history. he /
says, many crude ideas as to the usefulness |
and practicability ofTates fixing penal legis- |
latlon, pro rata laws, maximum and mini |
mum rate laws, etc, disappear, and it be- |
comes clear that the proposed legislation |
must be broader in its aims and less dis |
turbing in its action than that heretofore. at !
times, much in vogue. The low through |
rates of to-day, he SAYS, pointed ont |
by railroads as the reason why no legisla- |
ton is needed. have little to do with the |
question. There are phases of universal |
depression, intensified by reckless ana |
needless railroad construction Unneces-
sary railroads, sooner or later, become pub |
lie burdens; they are neither efficiently |
maintained operated nor do they per-
nit competitors to fulfill their public obi
cations. Congress cannot apply the remedy
chiefly needed. The State whose railroads |
are already sufficient in number and ex-
tent for public use, at fair rates, can and
ought to enact First, that no new roads |
should be chartered unless public ncees- |
sity for the line is found to exist |
as in Massachusetts, and as recon-
mended by the New York Rail
road Commission to the Legislature; |
second, that at least fifty per cent of stock |
be paid in before domain is exercised or |
construction begun, and that the issue of |
bonds shall bear a fair relation to the stock
issued and paid in. 1t is at local non |
competitive points that friction exists, and |
where pro rata for the shipper is needed |
other than that afforded by the uncon-
trolled arbitration of the carrier. The
popularity of the present situation is that
a railroad and its management act as Judge |
and jury, and the shipper is coerced out of |
clear rlght of having the question be-
tween himself and carrier fairly deter
mined by on impartial arbiter The
legalizing of pools is considered objectiona-
BILE. Mr.. Herman advocates the creation
OF National Commission whose findings
upon all questions of fact should |
be accepted in all Courts as prima facie. II
is true that such pleadings, he declares, are
the one thing needful to make the Courts |
available to carriers and shippers, as against |
each other.
The Board of Railroad Commissioners of /
Kansas contribute to this volume paper |
which expresses the opinion that National \
Commission should be established, vested |
with certain supervisory powers over the \
subject of interstate commerce. These |
powers should be confined to the function |
of regulation, and not to the management |
of the business of interstate commerce. 1t |
would, the Board thinks, serve no useful |
or practical purpose to give such Commits /
sion the power to establish maximum rates |
for either passenger or freight traffic over !
interstate railways, the subject being |
too large and intricate to be in |
telligently dealt with by single |
body of men, even though composed of |
men trained in the study and business of |
railroad affairs There are, the Board saws, |
two classes of interstate traffic over railroad |
iines-one between interior points and the |
seaboard, and the other across State lines. |
but still local. 1t is obvious that the rates |
adopted for one class would furnish no cri- |
terion of rates for the other. The great |
cereal crops raised in the Mississippi valley |
and the meat products i'll the trans Miissis- |
sippi, in the continued production of which |
the country is vitality interested. can only |
be maintained by a system of rates for their |
transportation to the seaboards which. |
while they involve no absolute loss would, |
II the same rates were obligatory upon |
them as to all traffic carried over their lines. |
consign every road in business into bank |
ruptcy. To desire system of maximum |
rates covering every species of in |
terstate traffic on the basis of rates
for lorg hauls from the extreme |
West to East would paralyze every railroad |
engaged IN the business. On the other |
hand, to equalize rates as between long and |
short routes would, if railroad property is |
to be preserved and its efficiency main |
tained, advance the rates on great distances |
to such an extent as to put an embargo /
upon the movement of the cereal crops of |
the extreme western trans Mississippi-a |
result which would be little less disastrous |
to the East than to the West. While the |
power to establish maximum rates TO |
govern interstate traffic would not, there !
fore, be wisely or usefully employed by the |
National Railroad Commission, such body |
might usefully exercise the function of en- |
tertainlng complaints from shippers of |
undue or unreasonable charges on the part |
of railroad companies, and Judge as to the |
reasonableness, or otherwise, of the |
charges complained of. In this way
prima facie case might be made for th
Courts. Complaints of alleged extortion
and unjust determinations might be IN |
vestgated in like manner and where evils |
of the classes named were found to exist. |
and remained uncorrected, an adequate |
and appropriate remedy could be evolved |
through the Courts. Nearly all causes of /
complaint on the part of shippers, arising |
in the business of transportation, might |
usefully be committed to investigation and |
correction, such as the Commission and |
Board feels safe in expressing an opinion, |
based upon the experience of State Com |
missioners that cases would seldom |
arise in which coercive power would |
have to be invoked to make the |
correction effectual. The Board discusses
the importance of maintaining the uniform J
itv and stability of rates, and the evils |
which result from secret concessions made |
to particular individuals or communities |
The Board thinks, as violent fluctuations |
of rates, consequent on rate wars. result |
usually in benefits to a few at the ultimate |
expense OF the many, contracts or agree |
ments between rival companies to carry on |
interstate traffic should be submitted TO the |
Commission established by Congress. whose
Judgment as TO the reasonableness of the |
proposed rates should be necessary to the |
validity of the contracts, which contracts |
should then be invested with a legal status |
and be enforcible in the Courts. The |
Board also discusses the subject of !
strikes, and suggests that National !
Commission might be intrusted with the !
power TO arbitrate and settle disputes aris- |
ing between companies and their employees. /,
Chase Perkins, President OF the Chicago, |
Burlington aud Quincy Railroad Company. !
contributes an interesting paper, setting |
forth what may perhaps be assumed to be !
the railroad side of tile question. He as |
sumes that it is a settled policy of most of !
the States to permit railroad construction !
to be free, and also that the English COM |
mon law doctrines relative to common car |
rier are not now open to discussion Many |
OF them are mere relics of an age of |
horsepower and water craft. He
thinks the best method of preventing
extortion or unjust discrimination is
by an appeal to the Courts, but |
saws that very LITTLE if apx- ox-tort;,,, % -,