Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-06

| challenged rate to be unreasonable to
| declare what thereafter should prima
| facie be the reasonable maximum rate
| for the transportation in dispute. The
| supreme court finally resolved that
| question in the negative, SO that as the
law now stands the commission simply
| possesses the bare power to denounce a
particular rate as unreasonable. While
/ am of the opinion that at present it
| would be undesirable if it We're not i'm
| practicable finally to clothe the COM
mission with general authority to fix
| railroad rates. 1 do believe that as
| fair security to shippers the commits
sion should be vested with the power
where given rate has been challenged
| and after full hearing found To be I'M
reasonable to decide. subject to judi
cial review, what shall be a reasonable
| rate to take its place, the ruling OF the
commission to take effect Immediately
and to obtain unless and until ii is re-
verSed by the court of review. The
government must in increasing degree
supervise and regulate the workings Of
the railways engaged In interstate
commerce, and such increased supervi-
sion is the only alternative to an in
crease of the present evils on the one
hand or a still more radical policy on
the other. In my Judgment the most
important legislative act now needed
as regards the regulation of corpora
tons is this act to confer on the inter
state commerce commission the power
to revise rates and regulations, the re-
vised rate to at once go into effect and
20 cyto In,
court of review reverses 1t.
Steamship companies engaged In in
terstate commerce and protected in our
coastwise trade should be held to q
strict observance Of the interstate COM
merce act.
City of Washington.
In pursuing the set plan to make the
city Of Washington an example to 9TH
er American municipalities several
points should be kept in mind by the
legislators. In the first place, the peo-
pie Of this country should clearly I'M
derstand that no amount of Industrial
prosperity and, above all, no leadership
in international Industrial competition
can in any way atone for the sapping
of the vitality Of those who are usually
farmers, the mechanics, the skilled and
unskilled laborers. the small shopkeep-
ers. make up the bulk of the popula-
ton Of any country, and upon their
well being, generation after generation,
the we'll being of the country and the
race depends. Rapid development in
wealth and industrial leadership is a
good thing. but only if 1t goes hand in
hand with improvement and not de-
terioration, physical and moral. The
overcrowding of cities and the draining
of country districts are unhealthy and
even dangerous symptoms in our mod
ern life. We should not permit over
crowding in cities. In certain Euro
pean cities 1t is provided by law that
the population of towns shall not be
allowed to exceed a very limited den
sity for a given area, SO that the in
crease in density must be continually
pushed back into a broad zone around
the center Of the town, this zone having
great avenues or parks within it. The
death rate statistics show terrible in
crease in mortality, and especially in
infant mortality, in overcrOwded tene-
ments. The poorest families in tenement
houses live in one room, and it appears
that in these one room tenements the
average death rate for a number Of
given cities at home and abroad Is
about twice what it is in a two room
tenement, four times what 1t is in d
three room tenement and eight times
what it is in a tenement consisting Of
four rooms or over. These figures vary
somewhat for different cities, but they
approximate in each city those given
above; and in all cases the increase Of
mortality, and especially of infant
mortality, with the decrease In the
number of rooms used by the family
and with the consequent overcrowding,
Is startling. The slum exacts a heavy
total Of death from those who dwell
therein, and this is the case not merely
in the great crowded slums of high
buildings In New York and Chicago,
but In the alley slums Of Washington.
In Washington people cannot afford to
ignore the harm that this causes. No
Christian and civilized community can
afford to show a happy go lucky lack
Of concern for the youth of today, for
II so the community will have to pay
a terrible penalty of financial burden
and social degradation In the tOmor-
row. There should be severe child la
Dor and factory inspection laws. 1t is
very desirable that married women
should not work in factories. The
prime duty Of the man is to work. to
be the breadwinner. The prime duty
Of the woman is to be the mother. the
housewife. All questions OF tariff and
finance sink into utter insignificance
when compared with the tremendous.
the vital importance Of trying to shape
conditions 80 that these two duties OF
the man and Of the woman can be
fulfilled under reasonably favorable
circumstances. II a race does not have
plenty Of children or II the children do
not grow up, or II when they grow up
they are unhealthy in body and stunt
ed Of vicious I'm mind, then that race
is decadent, and no heaping up Of
wealth, no splendor of momentary ma