Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-02-01
The Railways Now Say They
Are Willing to Have Abuses
of Power Curbed
BUT WANT TO MAKE OWN RATES
President Spencer Sees Great Danger
in Giving Interstate Commission the
Right to Name Freight Rates-Ad-
mits Many Abuses Exist, but Pro-
posed Changes are Worse.

/
| Ger, president of the Southern rail-
way. who represented many of the
leading railways of the country before
the house committee, which has been
considering the various bills in regard
to the regulation of rates, gave his
views on the presidents speech before
the Union League Club of Philadelphia.
at Is strange to note a tendency to
read into the presidents speech before
and, indeed, into the various utter
ances on the railroad question, an at
tack upon the railroads and railroad
men," said President Spencer. Il do
not so construe 1t. This misconcep-
ton of the presidents purpose seems
to me to rest on the rather curious
confusion in the public mind between
the rebate abuse and the making of
rates, two opposing things, which
really have no necessary connection
which should be considered entirely
! separately.
IF there are abuses-and there UNI
doubtedly have been some-the rail-
roads of this country, l think l may
safely say, are a unit in agreeing with
the president that such abuses should
be controlled.
Many Abuses Exist.
anyone who will read the testimony
taken during the past few months
before the house committee on inter-
state commerce will be impressed by
the unanimity of statement Of the rail-
| road representatives of their OPPOSE
ton to rebates and other illegal abus-
es, where such exist, and of their de-
sire to put a stop to them. On TINS
point there can be no question.
"The president is right and the vast
majority of the managers Of the rail-
roads warmly second him when he re-
coenizes that conscientious and public
spirited railway men should be pro-
tected from illegal acts of less scrup-
| ulous competitors and from unscrup-
ulous big shippers, but the legislation
now proposed for granting rate-mak-
ing power to the interstate commerce
commission, not only does not afford
such protection but it necessarily Wis
it's upon the innocent punishment in
tended for the guilty.
"If there are abuses connected with
private cars, private tracks and SIM
liar matters, these also, should be rem
edied, and this might be done by sub
jecting these private car lines and pri-
vate tracks to the provisions of the in
terstate commerce law.
No Excuse for Control.
'"Then, if criminal act be commit
| ted, it can be punished, as other GRIM
| inal acts are punished, under the terms
of the statute; but in this case again,
| the mere fact that such an abuse exists
| is no warrant for assuming control of
| railway rates. The occurrence of rob-
| berry is not sufficient reason for say
| ing that the government should vir-
| tually take possession Of all private
property. with a view Of protecting it
| from robbers. Yet such a proposition
would be as logical as the suggestion
that the prevention of rebates and
| other abuses would be secured to Civ
| ing to the commission the power to fix
| rates.
1T is a great pity that the public
| has not a better understanding of what
| is, after all, the most difficult, highly
| technical and laborious task before
railroad men-the making of rates. A
| man goes into a railroad office and the
| clerk. turning to tariff book, tells him
| the rate This seems a simple trans
| action, but as a matter of fact most
| Of the work by many people at an
expense of thousands Of dollars and
years of experience have been involved
| in the establishment of that particu
| lar rate.
Magnitude of the Task.
every railroad man knows the great
| difficulty of securing exact justice in
| fixing rates and experience is demon
strating that the rate which develops
| traffic-and therefore the rate which
| the railroad should prefer from pure
| self interests almost certainly the
| nearest possible approach to justice.
! But the adjustment of rates in such
way as to develop traffic is possible
only at the hands Of railway officials
! responsible for the results, trained for
wears to understand local needs and
the limits of possible change in Won
aerf,,lly and necessarily complex or
| ganization.
81 am glad to see that the president
repeatedly cautions against what he
calls violent and ill-advised action,
and urges that the effort to make pro-
gress should be tentative and cautious
Task in Fixing tariffs.
uyyyh.,, ono raalizes that according