Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1902-01-24
SENSATION FOR RAILWAYS
COMMERCE COMMITS
SION MAKES A REPORT.
Declares the Interstate Commerce.
Law Cannot Be Enforced, But
y Has No Remedy.

Law Cannot Be Enforced, BUT
s. Has No Remedy.
Washington, Jan. 24.-The annual
report of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, which was transmitted to
Congress yesterday, renews the declar-
alton made in previous reports that IN
its present condition the act to regu-
late commerce cannot be enforced. AS
to remedial legislation, the commission
reneWs the statement made in its pre-
vious annual report, that it has little
to suggest and nothing new to pro
pose.
The feature Of the report is the al
most sensational report of the rela-
tions existing between the railways
and comparatively few heavy ship
pers. Referring to the commissions
recent investigations into the amount
of packing house products and of grain
and grain products, the report says:
THE facts therein developed are of
such character that no thoughtful
person can contemplate them with In
difference. That the leading traffic Of
ficials of many OF the principal rail-
way lines, men occupying high posi-
tions and charged with the most i'm.
late the statute law Of the land, and
in some cases agree with each other
to do so; that it should be thought
necessary by them to destroy vouchers
and to so manipulate bookkeeping as
to obliterate evidence of the transac-
tons; that hundreds of thousands OF
dollars should be paid in unlawful re-
bates to a few great packing houses;
that the business OF railroad trans
portation should to such an extent be
conducted in open disregard of law.
must be surprising and offensive to all
right-minded persons Equally start
ling at least is the fact that the owners
of these packing houses, men whose
names are known throughout the COM
mercial world, should seemingly be
so eager to augment their gains with
enormous amounts of these re-
bates which they receive in open de
fiance of a federal statute
That there are palliating circum-
stances under which railway traffic Of
f1cials act, the commission is not un-
mindful, and the opinion is expressed
that existing laws should be so amend
ed that railway managers who desire
to observe them can do so without
risk of sacrificing their property.
The application of the remedy; the
report says, is fraught with dangers to
the public, and it should not be appli-
ed unless the public is fully protected.
In view of those great combinations,
which have been formed and are now
forming, by which railway competition,
which upon the present theory of this
law is greatly relied upon to secure
just and reasonable rates and facili-
ties, will be largely eliminated, some
method should be provided by which
the government can exercise in fact
that control over railway rates and
operations which courts without num-
Der have asserted that it possesses
and which many persons suppose that
it now exerts. The commission believes
that the whole law should be revised
upon some correct theory and some
workable basis. In view of the gross
violations of the act, the commission
suggests that if it is not possible to
amend this law in it's more essential
features, it ought at least to be pos
sible to deal with those coercivs
features of the act which are intended
to prevent practices Of this character