The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-03-29
CHANGES OF ADDRESS
GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION OF Rail-
WAYS

Whatever else it may have accom-
plished. litigation and discussion Igard-
ing the consolidation of different railroad
systems is making it pretty plain that
what people fear most about them,
whether they oppose or favor particu-
lar consolidation, is the dangerous power
they give into the hands Of one man OF
few men. The complaint of the govern
ment in the case recently brought against
the Northern Securities company does not
indulge in legal hyperbole when it de-
cIares that the same system Of stock con-
troll may be used to bring into common
ownership all of the railroads OF the
United States. People express fear that
it would be unwise to give the Interstate
Commerce Commission the rate-fixing
power, but as things are tending now
few railroad magnates will soon be max
ing rates for the whole country. And II
that Is what is coming, why should not, as
the Wall Street Journal asks, the rate
making power be entrusted to the federal
government, that is to say, the commits
sion? 1t is unthinkable that tine people
will permit to continue indefinitely the
despotism Of the railroads with their
private and secret concessions to favored
persons or corporations, which are for all
the world like the monopolies and special
grants the old-time monarchs were wont
to make. To-day from one end of the
country to the other there is the pub
Iished tariff for the small shipper and the
special agreement for the large shipper.
When a small business man discovers that
he is required to pay much more for the
same service than the large business man
he experiences about the same resentment
as the man who discovers that he is not
the equal of his neighbor before the law.
Inequality Of rates is more unjust than
exorbitance Of rates.
The railroads have had many years in
which to prove their ability to give the
public certain rates and maintain them
and they have proved their inability to
accomplish the task. The only other
possible way in which it can be done is
through federal supervision by an agent
with powers to make just rates and en-
force them. Railroad men who like to
pride themselves on their familiarity with
the intricacies Of rates questions shake
their heads and say with an air of fnality
that no commission can make rates sat-
isfactory to the railroads or adapted to
the wants Of the people and the exigen
ces of occasions. With a powerful In
terstate Commerce Commission there
would be little governmental initiative
in making rates. They would be accepted
pretty much as the railroads would offer
them, with here and there a. kink
Strengthened out, but those rates being
once published would be adhered to and
all shippers would be treated alike.
Wise railroad men feel ashamed of the
DETERMINATIONS they often have to make
in self-defense, under the present eccen
trio system and foresee that indefinite
continuation Of such a course will make
government ownership of railroads a very
live topic. These facts explain why 1t is
that powerful companies like the Penn
sylvania are using their influence for the
adoption Of a law increasing the powers
OF the commission both to regulate rates
and enforce their regulations. What
such companies want is assurance that
all the companies will have to live up to
the law and the rule-that they will be
observed by the willing as well as the
unwilling. 1t is really the big shipper
rather than the big railroad magnate
who opposes governmental ratemaking
and enforcing. The big shipper profits by
the present methods and the railroad man,
oppressed with feeling that he is doing
Injustice, does the others dirty work