Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-04-03
PR(|UIY SEES DANGER
Steady Advance in Freight Rates
Cause for Alarm in
America.
Interstate Commerce Commits
sioner Prouty Discusses the
Subject at Chicago.
More Danger From High Rates
Than From Unfair Dis.
elimination.

/
sanitation which was held last evening.
The program called for but one set
speech. which was delivered by Inter
STATE Commerce Commissioner Charles
A. Prouty, of Vermont. The subject OF
Commissioner Prouty's address was
THE Cause of the Steady Advance in
Freight Rates" Charles III. Deere, OF
Moline, presided at the banquet and IN
! troduced Commissioner Prouty in q
meat address. Mr.. Prouty spoke as fol-
| lows.
Il Was a little astonished and good
deal pleased to know that you were be-
ginning to realize here. at the center OF
railway operations, that such thing as
an advance in rates was possible. The
| general Impression is the other way.
The statement that rates in the United
States are the lowest in the world. that
/ they are too low, that they are contin-
ually becoming lower, has been so per-
sistently circulated that it has come to
be almost an axiom that discrimination
Is the only real evil and that there is no
possible danger to be apprehended from
unreasonably high rates.
MY own opinion is, and always has
been. exactly the other way. While 1t
| is, perhaps, true that the crying evil of
today is the railway preference. and
while the magnitude of that wrong can
scarcely be overstated, the ultimate
danger which confronts US is the excess
sive transportation charge; that this
species of property, largely owned an ]
entirely controlled by the very wealthy,
will impose upon every other species of
property, and therefore mainly in the
end upon the poorer classes, an unjust
tax. Monopoly has been odious in all
ages. not because 1t discriminates. but
because 1t EFFORTS. We are face to face
with railroad monopoly.
"The cost Of moving traffic has stead
| lily declined and is steadily declining.
| One man today transports more tons
one mile than he did ten, or three years
ago. Cars are more heavily loaded,
trains are longer, grades and curves
| are easier. The profit of operating a
railway increases rapidly with the in
must be maintained. The office force
of the company must be kept up. In
other words, the fixed charges are much
the same, whether the amount of traffic
be great or little, and even the actual
expenses of moving decreases in pro-
portion as traffic increases.
Nov, why is 1t that when cost of
Transportation is decreasing, when ton
mage is increasing, when gross reve-
nues are steadily growing larger and
net revenues are still more rapidly
gaining, the rate itself should also adj
vance? I am not inquiring into the
justice of the thing. If rates were too
low they ought to advance. The ques-
ton is as to the reason for the thing
itself. AS see it, the reason is this
because, by various processes. there is
being eliminated from the railway OPP
erations OF the United States the factor
of railway competition.
ut is vigorously insisted that railway
competition does not reduce railway
rates, and that no danger is to be APP
pretended from the removal OF such
competition. Upon the contrary, un-
dertake to affirm that no important re-
duction OF general import has been
made In the published rate during the
last decade which was not mainly due
to railway competition. / affirm the
converse, that no advance has been
made in the published rate, or In the
actual rate, in recent years, which has
not been effected by the elimination of
some railway competition.
"If competition has been the regula-
tor of railway rates in the past and
that competition is fast becoming a
vanishing quantity. what Is the rem
edy? The natural answer is. compel
competition by law. prohibit combina-
| tons by statute. That is the remedy of
Governor Van SAINT. That is the rem
edy of the attorney general. 1t never
can be made an effective one. The
Northern Securities Company may be
dissolved; If it be an illegal institution
it certainly ought to be- But what has
been gained by its dissolution? A little
over capitalization has perhaps been
bletted out; nothing else has really
been accomplished. The Great North
ern and the Northern Pacific railroads
are still owned by the same men. They
are friends in fact, and no amount of
legislation can ever compel them to
fight like enemies. What is true there
is true in every other case. You can
secure satisfactory railway competition
by law. You may compel it in spots and
| spasms. You may even secure it, per-
haps, upon the surface, but actual. eff
fective competition, competition which
completes, will soon be q thing of the
past III the railway world. Tie quicker
we appreciate this fact the better shall
We DIAL with tho pyohIoy,
If the owners of railway property
are free to say what shall be charged
for the service of transportation, they
will In the long run rob the public. No
amount of sophistry can Disguise it,;
such a condition is against common
sense, common experience and common
decency.
What. then, Is the remedy?
THE railway is q. public servant. It's
rates are subject TO public regulation.
The government not only may, but
should, compel the charging of just and
| reasonable tariffs. That remedy is per-
fectly adequate. perfectly just and per-
fettly capable of application. In that
way, and in no other way, can the dan
gers presented by Combinations by the
elimination of railway competition, be
dealt with. When there is some COM
petent tribunal, clothed with the power
to inquire whether railway rate is
just and to make 1t just If found un-
Just, the danger of combination largely
ceases. You and / might prefer compe-