Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1905-10-20


fcially valued at nearly twice what
1t would cost to buy the Southern APP
palachian Reserve.
Praises the Veterans,
The position of honor I'm your
parade today is held by the Cenfedal.
ate veterans. They by their deeds re
tlect credit upon taeir descendants aud
upon ell Americans, Soth because they
did their duty in war and because
they did their duty in peace.
1.-THE extraordinary development of
industrialism during the last half cen
fury has been due to several causes,
but above all to the revolution i'm
the methods of transportation AMI
communications: that is, to steam and
to electricity. to the railroad and
the telegraph.
When this government was found
ed commerce was carried on by es.
sentially the same instruments that
had been in use not only among tivil-
lied, but among barbarian nations,
ever since history dawned; that IS,
wheeled vehicles drawn by animals,
by pack trains, and by sailing ships
and rowboats. On land this meant
that commerce went slow, cumberous.
and expensive fashion over highways
open to ell. Normally these highways
could not compete itr water trans.
portation, If such was feasible be-
tween the connecting points.
All is Changed Now.
'All this has been changed by the
development of the railroads. Save
on the ocean or on lakes so large as
to be practically inland seas, trans.
port by water has wholly lost it's old
position of superiority over transport
by land, while instead of the old high
ways open to everyone OIL the same
terms, but OF very limited useful.
ness. we have new hiShways-rail-
roads-which are owned by private
corporations. and which are practically
of unlimited instetd of limited, use.
fulness.
THE old laws and old customs
which were adequate ana proper to
meet the old conditions need radical
readjustment in order to meet these
ne wconditions. The cardinal features
in these changed conditions are, first.
Tic fact that the new highway, the
railway, is. from the commercial
standpoint, of infinitely greater impor-
lance in our industrial life than was
the old highway, the wagon road; and
second. that this new highway, the
railway. is in the h;.l.Is of private
owners. whereas the old highways, the
wagon road, was in the hands of the
State.
THE management of the new high
way, the railroad, or rather OF the
intricate web of railroad lines which
cover the country, is a task infinitely
more difficult. more delicate, and more
important than the primitively easy
task of acquiring or keeping in order
the old highway; so that there is
properly no analogy whatever betwco
he two cases.
Against Federal Owne rshIp.
II do not believe in government
ownership of anything which can with
propriety be left in private hands, and
in particular should most strenu.
ously object to government owner.
ship of railroads.
But believe with equal firmness
that 1t is out of the question for the
government not to exercise a super.
visory and regulatory right over the
railroads; for it is vital to the we'll.
being of the public that they should
be managed in Il spirit of fairness
and justice toward all the public. Ac-
tual experience has shown that II is
not possible to leave the railroad UNI
controlled. Such system, or rather
such lack of system, is fertile in
abuses of every kind. and puts a pre-
MUM upon INSCRIPTIONS and ruthless
cunning in railroad management; for
there are some big shippers and
some railroad managers who are al
ways willing to take unfair advantage
of their weaker competitors, and
they thereby force other big shippers
and big railroad men who would like
20 do decently into similar acts of
wrong and Injustice. under penalty oi
being left behind in the race for sue.
cess. Government supervision is need
ed quite as much In the interest oil
the big shipper and of the railroad
man who wants to do right as in the
interest of the small shipper and the
consumer.
Laws Are Defective.
Experience has shown that the pre-