Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-10
Comment on Probable Rail-
way Rate Legislation.
SIGNIFICANT SPEECH
THAT OF SECRETARY TAFT AT
LAST NIGHTS BANQUET.
indication That the Outcome Will Not
Be What the President
Desires.

road men in attendance upon the pending
congress were assembled the absorbing
topic Of conversation was the speech of
Secretary Taft at the banquet last night
and the recent Denver speech of President
Roosevelt upon the subject of railway rate
legislation. These two official utterances
have attracted the most earnest attention
of the great railway operators.
They say that the issue is now squarely
joined between the administration and the
railways upon the subject of legislation
The administration abates no jot or title
of it's demand for regulation of railway
rates; the railroads equally insistent
that there shall not be governmental regu-
latlon to that extent. 1t is said now to be
a fight to finish.
competent authority will see the organi-
cation of still further efforts by the rail-
roads to carry their point in Congress and
with the people. There is no intention on
their part to accept either the admonition
of the President or the advice of Secretary
Taft that it would be the part of wisdom
to yield to the popular demand. They are
going to fight
A Significant Situation.
President Roosevelt's Denver speech. in
which he took a position in advance of any
public utterance on that question he has
ever made, reiterated in its salient points
by Secretary of War Taft at the banque.
to the delegates of the international rah-
way congress here last night is regarded
as the most significant situation which has
arisen since the agitation for rate making
began. The Presidents reply to the cam
paign of education carried on by the rail-
roads since the adjournment of Congress.
expressed in his speech, is that the ad-
miniStration is unequivocally in favor of a
general maximum rate making power for
a governmental agency as well as super
vision of corporations, including railways,
He signified beyond all possibility of a
doubt that instead of surrendering to the
railroads and the Senate at this time he
had only begun to fight. Secretary Taft
last night bluntly told the railroad men
they might as well lie down" one time as
another for the people favored railway
rate legislation and would get ii. The reply
of Stuyvesant Fish, president of the Illinois
Central railroad and president of the con-
gress took up the gage thrown down
One of the most significant features or
the pronunciamentos of the President and
Secretary Taft is that Secretary of the
Navy Paul Morton, who represented the
President in welcoming the delegates to the
congress last Thursday. voiced a note on
the railroad rate situation which does not
ring true to the policy of the administra-
ton as given by the President and Secre-
tary Taft. His view that if all forms of
discrimina tons, such as private lines
and the like. shall be done away with the
rates will take care of themselves. appears
now 20 be the railroad view and the view
of the senators of the Elkins committee.
Secretary Taft's Remarks.
Secretary Taft literally bearded the lions
in their den last night in his speech at the
railway banquet His remarks were as
caustc as they were unexpected. He en-
phatically declared that railway rate Iegis-
lation must come, that if the railroads
were wise they would not oppose it and
that the feeling of the country was such
that failure to enact railway legislation by
Congress would result in a campaign
throughout the country that would do the
railroads no good. Secretary Taft also
went on record as opposed to government
ownership of railroads.
President Roosevelt's Denver speech and
Secretary Tafts remarks at the internal
tional railway congress banquet last night
do not initiate against the prediction of
the railroad men that when the time comes
the administration will accept the COM
promise engineered by the railroad inter
eStS and the Senate, making some reforms
in railroad legislation, but stopping short
of giving the rate-making power to any
government agency. They say no one ex-
poets the President to announce his will
ingness to accept such a compromise now.
Like Cleveland's Tariff Bill.
The railroad battle in Congress will be
fought vigorously. When the choice comes,
in its final stages. between taking what
the Senate will give, or making an appeal
to the country over its head, President
Roosevelt will find himself in much the
position that President Cleveland did when
the Senate sent the Wilson tariff bill to
him in such form that he declared it tainted
with perfidy and dishonor. Mr.. Cleveland
could have vetoed the bill and made an
other appeal to the country, but this in
volved large risks. He thought there was
enough that was desirable in the bill to
justify his allowing it to become a law,
even without his signature The present
railroad controversy in Congress promises
to be not wholly diSsimilar.
The railroad interests and the dominant
senators will have no difficulty in reaching
a compromise upon which they can stand
solidly. 1t will doubtless carry many gen.
uine reforms but will stop short of touch
ing the power over rates. 1t is boasted by
the railroad men that President Roose-
velt's theory in such case would be to
take the half loaf rather than endanger
the party organization by pushing for the
complete measure of reform of which he
is now a vigorous advocate. This theory is
not shared, however, by the friends in Con-
gress of railway reform.
NAVIGATION OF THE OTTO