Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1905-09-20

4
that Oregon and Washington mills
could market their product in the
middle west in competition with
nearby producers.
Now both these things were done
voluntarily and it strikes me it
would be a good while before any
Government railroad rate making
commission would ever voluntarily
make such a concession to the pub
lie. They simply would not be al
lowed to 90 it. Other communities
which were temporarily injured.
would step in and make such a
howl that the whole commission
would run to cover.
Not even the railroad men deny
that there are a whole lot of abuses
In this transportation question that
have grown up by degrees and
which have resulted in illegal bcne-
fits to the trusts of various kinds.
But on the other hand there have
been a heap of benefits to the pro-
ducer, of which these instances of
what Mr.. Hill has done are good
+ examples. The South has been ben
Gifted by voluntary reductions Of
/ freight rates on cotton. made SO
that they could ship their product
to the Orient. The New Englander
got the same benefit on his potato
crop when there was n failure i'm
the supply of the West and he had
an Over-production 10 market. The
Boston K Maine Railroad voluntar-
+ lily lowered its rate So as to oct
these potatoes to points where they
could be marketed To the best adj
vantage. \ hundred other instances
might be given of similar volun-
tarY concessions of railroads for
the benefit of the agriculturist or
manufacturer along the lines. If
the Government was in control of
railway rates none of these volun-
tary concessions which were the
result of business emergencies.
would have been made. England
and Germany have both shown its
impossibility in their attempt to
manage railway transportation
satisfactorily.
There Is a good deal of howl
about discrimination in freightrates
that has no basis because there are
useful determinations as we'll as
determinations that are pernicious.
and people invariably forget the
latter. We could not have any Of
the useful determinations
necessary observation-disclosures a
railroad commission had control of
rates, and all suggested legislation.
IN spite of what its advocates NAV
say, Is bound TO give to any COM
mission absolute power over all
rates. They can not make a change
in one rate, in response to a COM
plant about that rate. without
necessitating a change of rates in
every community and on every line
of railroad that enters into compe-
uton in any way with the particu-
lar community making the original
complaint. If that is not absolute
rate fixing | don't know what is.
That's what makes me believe
that 1t Is better sometimes to keep
the horse YOU have and whose fail
ings YOU know all about, than to
swap 1t off for an animal which YOU
know nothing about, and which is
harder to manage than an auto
mobile that is determined on a tree
climbing experiment.
The action of the President in
turning out Public Printer Palmer
has brought to a crisis the trouble
IN the great printery. Mr.. Palmer
has determined to ask for a Con-
gressional investigation when the
Congress meets in December and
air the whole thing. Ifhe gets the
investigation it IS going to make
trouble for whole let of people
here who will be brought into the
thing, who, otherwise never would
be known in it. 1t is going to in
volve Senators and Representatives
and big newspaper proprietors all
over the country who are the hold
ers of stock in the Mergenthaler
Linotype machines. 1t IS going to
show up how the MergenthaIer
people first got the permission of
Congress to ask the Public Printer
to use his own discretion to place
in the the Government PRINTING
Office the linotype machines and