New-York tribune., 1905-11-16
RAILROAD EMPLOYEES AND RATES.

The fears of rate legislation which have been
fostered among the railway employees who pre-
sented their protest to the President seem TO
have been founded on an utter misapprehens1on
of what is proposed. 1t Is a m1sapprenenslon
which some of the railroad managers and their
press agents are doing their best to create, and
1t Is not surprising that the workmen should
have fallen into it The objections conjured up
against moderate rate legislation are largely PAN
icky and based on an exaggerated notion OF
the esoteric wisdom of railroad freight agents.
Nobody wants to upset the railroad business or
hurt the railroads, and nobody proposes any
measure remotely threatening such a result
The evils for which a remedy is sought are
not high rates, but unequal rates The argu~
ment that any government regulation must
tend toward lower level Of rates Is q pure as
sumption. 1t may be as plausibiy argued that
by cutting off determinations concerning which
the railroads themselves profess to be helpless
In the hands Of rapacious shippers the average
level of rates. earning power and wage fund
Of railroads would be raised
The Presidents views of rate making as re-
Gently outlined by Senator Knox in a speech
at Pittsburg, contemplate nothing remotely
threatening these imaginary dangers. We may
pass over possible legislation against private
car abuses and secret rebates which would
merely strengthen the machinery for securing
equality now required by law. The President,
according to Mr.. Knox, believes that the Inter
state Commerce Commission should have power,
after hearing a complaint, to fix a reason
able rate and enforce it unless or until reversed
by the courts. The railroads would make their
rates as they do now The commission would
have no initiative. It would not act on it's
own knowledge, but judicially, after hearing
what the complainants and the railroad had to
The pOurt DprIOrmS similar function
now. 1t may declare q specific rate unreason-
able, and by Il long process Of exclusion of one
unreasonable rate after another force reason
able rate, but it cannot affirmatively fix and en-
force reasonable rate and so make its author
ity Immediately effective. The plea that the
railroads should be subject to no review in this
matter is met by the fact that they are now
subject to the courts, only the operation of liti-
CATION is so slow to amount to a denial Of
Justice to shippers
Prompt relief Is needed from a competent
body It is said that the commission cannot
be trusted with such a power. But even rail-
road managers must see that that plea is rather
ridiculous. 1t would tax credulty to declare
that these commissioners of long experience
and of undisputed imparuality We're less COM
petent to fix a fair rate, even in the first in
stance, than some youth recently out of college
who may be pitchforked into the Job OF rate
making by father or an uncle in control of q
road. When it is remembered that the com
mission would only review a controverted rate
and with all the facts marshalled by both sides
before it, say whether it just or not, sub
iect to ultimate correction by the Supreme
Court the plea becomes absurd AS well say
that men of similar capacity on the bench are
incompetent to determine the merits of an in
volved and technical account, try case
turning on scientific matters transcending their
original knowledge. Such a power as Is pro-
posed would merely furnish means to secure
promptly decisions which can be obtained now
but only after delays which are oppressive
We give the railway employees credit for sup
posing that the proposed regulation would real
ly mean a confscation of legitimate railway
earnings and crippIing of the business on
the prosperity of which their welfare depends
We are glad to note this realization of the fact
that their duty is to promote railroad pros
perity rather than to wreck it. We should be
sorry to believe, has been suggested by some
critics of the protest that this sense of common
interest went so far that the employees were
ready to back the companies in holding rates
at the highest possible level, even if that level
were unjust. provided they secured a share of
the proceeds Unfortunately, some labor or
CARNATIONS have shown willingness to COM
bine with employers to oppress or defraud the
public, especially Ia the building trades There
have also been rumors of the possibility of such
a conspiracy in the anthracite mining industry.
We are not. however prepared to believe that
the railway workers. some of whose organZa-
d0ns have been the most conservative and fair
minded in the country, would ask the President
TO stay his hand from securing justice to the
whole people for the sake of giving them
larger share of unjust exactions levied by rail-
roads. We rather believe that they have been
deceived by the outcry of railroad managers
that movement for justice a movement
Of spoliation, and that they mean to ask moth