The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-05-20
WASHINGTON LETTER. ,
Discussion of the Necessity for Railroad
Legislation-President Roose-
ve1t,s Firm stand.

velts Firm stand.
By the splendid manliness of his
reply to the striking teamsters, the
absolute lack of anything suggestive
OF demagoguery, his insistenee that
the law must be obeyed and that order
must be preserved, and his assertion.
made at the Iroquois Club of Chicago.
that the state was behind Mayor Dunno
and the nation behind the state, the
president has disarmed his enemies
and made a giant stride toward the
accomplishment of that legislation
which he regards as essential to the
proper control Of the railroads of the
country. He has left no opportunity
Tor men to say that he is revolution
airy, or that he is ssplaying for effect, y
and his recommend ations must be re-
celved as the sincere belief of "a man
who is honest and fearless beyond all
question. AS there prevails consider
able confusion regarding the reforms
which the president hopes to effect and
the evils he seeks to remedy, a some
what detailed explanation of the sit
uatlon seems appropriate. for. these
letters particularly, as most OF this
Information has been gained in per-
sonal conversations with the president
himself.
There are two distinct evils which
the president seeks to remedy. The
greater is the absolute domination by
individuals or corporations, or COM
blnations OF corporations, of the great
highways of commerce, those ironed
highways commonly called railroads.
Only an exercise of the authority OF
the state or government makes pos
sible the requirement OF rights of way
and the condemn alton OF private prop
erty under the legal principle of emil
nent domain. When constructed these
railroads constitute natural monop-
olies and only by the exercise of gov
ernmental regulation and supervision
over these monopolies can they be
prevented from working injustice to
the people from whom they derive their
right to exist They are not private
property, such as wages, bread or
other commodities, as has been claimed
BY prominent railroad men. II thew
were the government could not prop
erly seek to supervise and control
them. Such supervision over private
property would be socialism pure and
simple. In essence the right Of way
OF railroad belongs to the people,
can never properly become the prop
erty of an individual, and it's admins
tration is merely delegated to those
who manage the railroad, always with
the reserved right on the part of the
government to exercise over it such
regulation and supervision as may be
necessary to protect the peoples
rights. The right to fix maximum
rates for freight and passenger trans
portation, which the president adj
vocates, would amount TO a concrete
assertion by congress OF the right of |
the people to control their own.
OF lesser Importance, although po-
tential for great evil, is the concrete
practice Of certain, perhaps OF all rail- /
roads, OF granting special privileges,
rebates, ETC., to certain individuals as |
against other individuals. The specific |
terms for these practices are rebates, |
differentials, long haul different ais,
the private car system, milling in
transit rates, the midnight rate and |
probably some others. Rebates can
probably be effectually prevented un-
der the Elkins law. They consist of
the return to certain individuals of
some portion Of the published freight
rates which they have paid for the
transportation of their goods. Re-
bates were chiefly instrumental in
building up the Standard Oil monop-
oily and other trusts. DifTerentials
and milling in transit are forms of dis
elimination whereby railroads. openly
seek to build up some particular To-
cality, branch, or the industries along
some branch, by the charge of lower
freight rates than other patrons of the
roads are compelled to pay for like
service. AS they are usually resorted
20 to make profitable some branch
which has hitherto failed to pay divi-
bends they would be unassailable ex-
;ept on the ground that the railroads
are not private property and must be
for the benefit of the en-
ire public instead of for hat of their
stockholders. Long haul different ais
are those special rates made TO ter
ninals where several roads compete
or business, sometimes made SO low,
he railroad men declare, that they re-
'ult in loss to the roads, which loss
must, of course, be made good by
'verch arging patrons of the road who
10 not live at the terminals. The mid
light rate and the private car system
lave come chiefly into use as method
# evading the Elkins law since that
lot was placed on the statutes. The :
lrst consists of a road making a spec
ally low rate for the goods of a large
'atron, or. trust. BY secret under
landing with the patron, this rate will
o into effect at midnight on a certain