Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-04-29
GEORGE R. PECK SAYS RATE
PLAN is a CHINESE
81 ONE.
is MILWAUKEE, COUNSEL
DecIaree That the Plan Proposed for
Solving the Freight Bate Problem is
Neither Practicable Nor Wise and
May Not Be Constitutional.

Washington, d. G., April 49, Char
acterizing the proposed plan Of govern
ment control of railroad rates as q Chi
nese method and not an American one,
George r. Peck, general counsel for
the Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul
railway, opposed the plan in a most
pronounced manners He was before
the senate's committee on commerce
today and his examination occupied
several hours of the session. His re-
marks are Of general interest. In part
he said:
Neither Practical Nor Wise.
''It is certainly not practicable
even If 1t were wise-to endeavor by
legislation, to eliminate the activities
which lie at the basis of commerce,
trade and traffic. and to substitute in,
their place the rigid control and regl-
lation Of paternaf government. That
is the Chinese method and trust
never will be the American method.
Men will always strive for their own
advantage and out of this strife all
commercial progress has come.
THAT commerce, rarried on without
any governmental regulation or con-
troll, would best serve the public, do
not believe. And yet it does not follow,
that is should be subjected to the
minute interference of q body Of men
who in the nature of things cannot
grasp its needs and 1t requirements
and the needs and requirements Of the
public" sf .s5s
Rebates Easily Corrected. &
Mr.. Peck insisted that rebates had
ceased or could be corree edyunder the
present laws, and sontir Ii ria. !. said the
proposed legislation, ii rebates Still
existed, would not be effective. He
said:
"A railway company can cut rate
made by a commission as easily as it
can cut rate made by itself. Making
rate is one thing-cutting rate is
another, and they have no possible re-
lation to each other If rates had been
made by a government commission
for the last twenty years it is perfect
ly plain that the rebate system would
have grown and flourished as it did
under system which allowed railways
to make their own rates. Speaking
for my own company-and in sense
for many other companies-I have
only to say, that they will welcome
any legislation, criminal or remedial,
which in any degree can make the
payment of rebates more difficult and
increase the certainty of detection, and
of punishment.
Not the Right Method. M
"But If it is supposed that the pay
ment of rebates can be suppressed by
giving to the committee the power to
fix rates I suggest that such result
is absolutely impossible.
"The rate making power upon any
railway is the power. of commercial
life and death. 1t is, under the consti.
tuition, clearly a property right-sub-
ject, of course, to the regulating pow
er of the state which created it-and
as to interstate Lusiness-of tie Unit
ed States. All property rights in this
country are protected by the federal
constitution; and the term liberty
means, not simply the physical privi-
leges Of being out of Jail, but the right
freely to carry on ones business, US
ing and enjoying ones faculties and
liberties, according to the law of the
land.
Placing all of these in the hands of
a commission is certainly wrong, and
probably unconstitutional"