Omaha daily bee., 1905-11-02

| found upon investigation to be wrong.
1T was thought that the expenses of the
effort would be much less If the several
| organizations desiring this amendment to
the law would act together That meeting
resulted in appointing a committee of the
organizations which met to carry on the
work. The committee selected e. p. Bacon
Of Milwaukee as its chairman, and pro-
ceeded I'm as inexpensive a way as possible
to call to the public attention some of
the abuses of railway transportation which
needed correction.
| THE convention and the committee
thought that the simple method of giving
! to the commission the power to correct the
| rate which 1t was supposed to possess up
| to a short time previous to the date mem
/ toned, would be sufficient and did not
/ apprehend serious objection upon the part
| OF the railroads generally comforting such
power on the commission.
! up to that time ii had not been charged
! that the commerce commission was
/ menace to the public safety Repeated eff
forts before congress had the effect at least
to develop the fact that the power of the
| railroads to prevent any legislation not de-
sired by them had grown to such proper
/ tions that the ordinary citizen had but poor
J
upon such a proposition.
After Theodore Roosevelt became presi-
| dent, and after numerous rate advances in
various parts of the country believing that
| a more powerful effort must be made If
/ anything was DONE the executive commit
/ tee of the law convention in 1904 called a
general meeting of commercial. shipping
and producing organizations to meet at
st. Louis October 2S, 1904.
| Recognizing the honesty and capability
of Mr.. Bacon, he again was appointed
chairman. Within the limit of such mod
| crate funds as were provided for the pur-
| pose, the work was carried on at
Washington before the committees and
otherwise by the distribution of literature,
and by laying before the public the neces-
| sity of remedial rate legislation as well
as presenting the matter to congressman
/ and senators.
THE result of no legislation, the untiring
! efforts of railway interests and of those
: who received some advantage or other in
! the matter of their freight rates to mold
| or affect public sentiment led the execu-
| tive committee to make inquiry of various
| organizations touching the propriety of
! calling another convention. This was to
provide the means of carrying on the work
and to renew The demands concerning leg
; islation as outlined in President Roose-
velt's message and in his subsequent pub
| lie utterances. Generally the replies were
favorable. The convention was called to
meet at Chicago.
| I'VE expected that the railroads would
! attempt to discourage organizations from
| sending delegates. But we were astonished
| to learn only short time before the date
of the convention that the attempt was be-
! ing made to secure enough delegates on
| posed to the principles and reasons for the
| call to vote down any resolutions favoring
! the legislation as outlined by the president
to increase the powers of the commission.
1t was beyond our desire thus to fan into
! such ambuscade.
I'm order to avoid such calar''v and in
order to hold a convention which would
afford the opportunity to speak our views
we We're put to the regrettable necessity of
| requiring that all those who attended as
delegates must subscribe to the principles
/ contained in the call of Chairman Bacon
and in the message of the president quoted
therein.
TT was far from the intention of the ex-
! ecutive committee to exclude anyone who
entertained those views 1t was the inten-
! ton of the committee to exclude only those
| committee
now invites the active cooperation of
everyone who is in accord with the reso-
lutions adopted at Steinway hall on Oc-
tober q, endorsing President Roosevelts
views respecting the needed amendments
to the interstate commerce act.
while the committee does not invite or
desire to provoke the criticism of those
who do not hold to those views, it does
not expect and did not expect their aid.
| Much has been charged against the ex-
ecutve committee, but mainly that it APP
piled gag rule and throttled free speech
To this It pleads that in order to afford
free speech 1t was necessary to exclude
those who themselves would have applied
the equivalent of gag rule by capturing
the convention
| THE executive committee, having per-
| formed its. duty, appeals to the public to
stand by the principles of railroad rate reg
ulation as demanded and outlined by Pres
ident Roosevelt and the resolutions as
adopted by the law convention.
THE method which the president pro-
poses is simple. The machinery of the law
exists; II simply needs the power. the
strengthening of it's weak points That is
what we advocate; that is what the OPPOSE
ton does not want Let not those who are
opposed to practical, speedy regulations
4 dictate the law or the plan to secure It
lest when you are expecting bread you
receive a stone.
You can afford to stand firmly by the
position of a president who has the moral
courage 10 lead you. coupled with the iudg-
ment and honesty not to lead you astray.
Let the public render its verdict"