The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1905-12-05

courts.
All private-car lines, industrial
roads, refrigerator charges, and the
like should be expressly put under the
supervision of the Interstate Com
| merce Commission or some similar
body so far as rates, and agreements
practically affecting rates, are on
cerned. The private-car owners and
the wner of industrial railroads are
entitled to a fair and reasonable COM
~pensation on their investment, but
neither private cars nor Industrial
railroads nor spur tracks should be
utilized as devices for securing pre-
ferential rates. A rebate in icing
charges, or in mileage, or in a divi-
sion of the rate for refrigerating
! charges is just as pernicious as a re
bate in any other way. No lower rate
should apply on goods imported than
actually obtains on domestic goods
from the American Seaboard to des-
tination except in cases where water
competition is the controlling infl1-
ence. There should be publicity of
common carrier engaged in interstate
business should keep any books or
memoranda other than those reported
pursuant to law or regulation, and
these books or memoranda should be
open to the inspection of the Govern
ment. Only in this way can VIOLA
tons or evasions of the law be sure
ly deteced. A system of examination
of railroad accounts should be pro-
vided similar to that now conducted
into the national banks by the bank
examiners; a few first-class railroad
accountants, if they had proper direc-
ton and proper authority to inspect
books and papers, could accomplish
! much in preventing willful violations
of the law. 1t would not be necessary
for them to examine into the ac-
counts of any railroad unless for good
reasons they were directed to do so
by the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion. 1t is greatly to be desired that
some way might be found by which
an agreement as to transportation
within a State intended to operate as
a fraud upon the Federal interstate
commerce laws should be brought I'm
der the jurisdiction of the Federal
authorities. At present it occurs that
large shipments of interstate traffic
are controlled by concessions on pure
ly State business, which of course.
amounts to an evasion of the law
The Commission should have power
to enforce fair treatment by the great
trunk lines of lateral and branch
lines.
81 urge upon the Congress the need
of providing for expeditions action by
the Interstate Commerce Commission
in all these matters, whether in regu
lating rates for transportation or for
storing or for handling property or
commodities in transit. The history
Of the cases Irrigated under the pre-
sent m act shows that its eff
f1ciency has been to a great degree
destroyed by the weapon of delay, al
most the most formidable weapon in
the hands of those whose purpose it
is to violate the law.
LET me most earnestly say that
these recommendations are not made
in any spirit of hostility to the rail
roads. On ethical grounds, on
1 grounds, of right, UGH hostility
4 would be intolerable; and on grounds
of mere national self-interest we must
remember that such hostility would
tell against the welfare not merely of
some few rich g but of a multi
tude of small investors, a multitude
of railway employees, wage-workers;
and most severely against the inter
est of the public az a whole. l be-
lieve that on the whole our railroads
have done well and not i'll; but the
railroad men who wish to do well
should not be exposed to competition
with those who have no such desire
and the only way to secure this n
is to give to some Government tri-
bunal the power to see that justice is
done by the unwilling exactly as it
is gladly done by the willing. More
| over. if some Government body is
given increased power the effect will
be to furnish authoritative answer on
behalf Of the railroad whenever ir-
rational clamor against it is raised,
or whenever charges against it are
disproved. I ask this legislation not
only in the interest of the public but
in the interest of h honest railroad
man and honest shipper alike, for it
is they who are chiefly jeoparded by
the practices of their dishonest COM
p~etitors. This legislation should be
enacted IN a spirit as remote as pos
sible from hysteria and rancor. If
we of the American body polite are
true to the traditions we have inner
tied we shall always scorn any effort
to make us hate any man because he
is rich. just as much as we should
scorn any effort to make us look
down upon or treat contemptuOuSly
any man because he is poor. We
judge a man by his eonduct-that is
by his charaeter-and not by his
wealth or intellect. II he makes his
fortune honestly, there is no just
cause Of quarrel with him. Indeed,
we have nothing but the k1ndllest
feelings of admiration for the sue
cessfm business man who behaves
idecentiy, whether he has made his
success by building or managing a
railroad or by shipping goods over
that railroad. The big railroad men
and big shippers are simply Ameri-
cans of ordinary type who have de
veloped to an extraordinary degree
great business qualities. They
are neither better nor worse than
felllow-citizens of smaller