Bisbee daily review., 1905-06-14


 Pending the expected calling of an extra session of congress in the fall to grapple with the rate question there is much discussion Of the proposition to increase the powers of the interstate commerce commission, if indeed that body has any power whatever. Some ot those participating in the argument are peculiarly qualified to throw light upon the subject, notably the interstate commerce commissioners themselves.
 Commissioner Prouty, who is one of ue keonest students of railroad legs lation in the country and an intelli- gent advocate of effective government control, made an interesting address at the Union league dinner in Chica- go recently, in which he dwelt espe- Cially upon the relation of the railroad to the trust question. Most of the great trusts, he declared, were founded upon railroad favoritism, whether in the na- lure of rebates or otherwise. He add cd:
 Not only is the railway itself the greatest monopoly by far. but it is the
 
 well understood that an advantage ill the railway rate means life to one com petitOr and death to the other, and the advantage is not of necessity from the payment of the rebate The boast of the Standard Oil company today is that ii takes no rebates. It does what is better than take rebates-it makes the schedule
 Commissioner Prouty not only advo- cates putting an end absolutely to the giving of rebates, which can be done by simply enforcing existing law, but says that to put an end to existing abuses some governmental agency must have power to fix rates on rail ways where the prevailing rates are unfair and unjust.
 He declares that the whole matter hinges right here; that governmental power must take rate making out of the hands of the railroads and itself name just and fair rates for the pro tection of the public from the extor- tions and determinations of common carriers.
 Ii is now everywhere recognized, ex- cept in selfishly interested quarters, that the interstate commerce commis- sion can only be made capable of per forming the functions for which it was created by empowering it 10 readjust and equalize rates upon the establish 1 ment of proof of their exorbitance or 1 inequality. or by the creation of a spe- l cial judicial tribune whose sole func- | ton it shall be to sit in cases of the 1 kind and redress real grievances.
 The proceedings should be more judi ciaI than paternal but there should be To possible question as to the power of the government as the final arbiter. As q common carrier, subject 10 interstate commerce regulations. the railroad is the subject of federal super vision. and it has no one to blame but | itself if it's lack of fairness in it's busi- | ness dealings with the citizens of the | several states brings it in contact with | the supreme power of the government l The solution of the whole problem 1 lies. as Commissioner Prouty says, in l government control of rates. just as the state railroad commissions are sup posed to have power to control rates within their respective states. When the central government asserts this in herent power we shall hear nothing more of injustices and inequalities of the kind. and may the reform come quickly,-Atlanta Constitution.