Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-05-25
THE PRESIDENT is SQUARE
Wants to See the Rate Making Law
Administered with Sanity
and Conservatism"

That promised campaign by the
president in favor of railway rate reg
ulation has been started. The speech
he made in Denver was the opening
gun in it. He announced that he ia
vored extending the powers of the
interstate commerce commission, and
of giving it particularly the power to
fix rates. and to have the rates that
they fix go into effect practically at
once" Then, too, he declares that he
favorS the extension of the commits
sion's authority over the private car
evil, which, as regards certain indus
tries, the president thinks, "offers an
even greater menace than is offered
by reason of the present system of
fixing rates" All this is in harmony
with what he urged in his message to
congress last winter, says the st.
Louis Globe-Democrat.
1t will be well to bear in mind, how
ever, that the rate-fXing power which
the president wants to have conferred
on the interstate commerce commits
sion has a limit. Attorney General
Moody, the other day, when he ap-
peared before the senate's committee
on interstate commerce, outlined the
powers of congress on this big issue,
as he understood them. There is a
governmental power to fix the maxi
mum future charges of carriers by
railroads vested in the legislatures of
the states with regard to transporta-
tion exclusively within the states, and
vested in congress with regard to all
other transportation" He added that
Although legislative power, properly
speaking, can not be delegated, the
lawmaking body, having enacted into
law the standard of charges which
shall control, may instrust TO an ad-
ministrative body not exercising in the
true sense judicial power the duty to
fix rates in conformity with that stand
ard" This administrative body"
means the interstate commerce com
mission. 1t is only the maximum
charges that the president has in mind
when he urges the comforting of this
power on the interstate commerce
commission.
But the president makes it plain
that he wants to see this rate-making
law administered with sanity and con
seTvatism." He wants a square deal
given to the railways, as well as to
their patrons and the general public.
We must be, he says, "as Jealous to do
justice to the railroads as to exact
justice from them" The same law
labOrer. No man is to be disCrimin-
ated against because he has property.
Nor is the property holder to be al
lowed to infringe on the rights of the
man without property. All men must
be equal before the law. He says that.
should such law be passed, he would
neither appoint nor retain on the com
mission any man who would fail to do
justice to the railroad, any more than
he would do this for the man who
would fail to exact justice from the rail
road. This is the spirit in which the
country wants the law to be admin
istered. The railways are an immense
interest. Their assets of $4,000. 600
coo represent about a seventh of the
aggregate wealth of the country. The
marvellous increase in the United
States wealth in the past two or three
decades has been due in a very large
degree to the extenson of the railway
system. A blow dealt to the railways
would react on every person in the
country. The same measure of JUS
tice which the railways receive under
the present statutes they will have
under the enactment which the presi-
dent urges, and which, in one shape or
another, is sure to be passed ultimate
ly by congress.