The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-24
PAID TO GREAT PACKING HOUSES
COME IN FOR sCATHING
DENUNCIATION
INTERSTATE COMMISSION HOT
Existing Act Should BE Carefully
Amended to Protect All interests
and Eliminate Special Priv
fIege Features.
CoERcIvE PROVISIONS WEAK

WASHINGTON. Jan. 23.-The annual
report Of the interstate commerce com
mission, which was transmitted to con-
gress today, renews the declaration in
previous reports that in its present con-
dition the act to regulate commerce can
not be enforced. AS to remedial legis-
lation, the commission renews the state
nent made in its previous annual report
that it has little to suggest and moth
ing to propose.
The feature of the report is the al
most sensational statement of the rela-
tions existing between the railroads and
comparatively few heavy shippers. Re
ferring to the commissions recent inves-
legations into the movement of packing
house products and grain and grain
products, the report says:
That the leading traffic officials Of
many Of the principal railway lines, men
occupying high positions and charged
with the most important duties, should
deliberately violate the statute law of
the land, and in some cases agree with.
each other to Go SO; that it should be
thought by them necessary to destroy
vouchers and to manipulate bookeep-
ing as to ob!iterate evidence of the trans
actions; that hundreds of thousands of
dollars should be paid in unlawful re-
bates to a few great packing houses;
that the business of railroad transporta-
tion should to such an extent be con-
Quoted in open disregard of law, must
be surprising and offensive to all right
minded persons. Equally startling ar
least 'is the fact that the owners Of
these packing houes, men whose names
are known throughout the commercial
world, should seemingly be eager to aug
mCnt their gains with the enormous
amounts of these reba tes, which they re-
ceive in plain defiance Of a federal stat
ute
Should Be Carefully Amended.
That there are palliating circumstances
under which railway traffic officials act,
the commission is not unnlindfuI, and the
opinion is expressed that existing laws
should be, so amended that railway man
ayers who desire to observe them can
do so without risk of sacrificing their
property.
The application of the remedy, the
court is fradght with dangers to
the public, and it should not be applied
unless the public is fully protected. In
view Of those great combinations which
have been formed and which 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 facilities, will
be largely eliminated some method
should te provided by which the govern
ment can exercise in fact that control
over railway rates and operations which
cOtnts without number assert that II
possesses, and which many persons sup
pose that it now exerts. The commits
sion believes that the whole law should
be revised on some correct theory and
some workable basis.
Coercive Power Needed.
In view of the gross violations of the
act the commission suggests that if II
is not possible to amend the whole law
in its more essential features, it ought
at least be possible to deal with those
-coercive features of the act which are
intended to prevent practices of this
character. Referring to the court de-
cisions that penalties cannot be imposed
upon corporations violating the act. and
that only their agents can be punished,
the commission says:
Now, the object of rate cutting Is to
get business and make money, and the
corporation, if any one, profits by the
Continued on Third Page.