The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-04-04
Regulation of Railroad Rates.

Regulation of Railroad Rates.
The Boston Transcript Of last Saturday
published a page article from President
Arthur 7. IIadley, of Yale University,
on railroad regulation. 1t is one OF the
most complete presentat tons Of the sub
jcct that we have seen from any source,
and II may be said just here that Presi-
dent TIadley is not a novice in the dis
cussion of this subject.o He Is author of
work entitled RAILROAD Transporta-
ton: It's History and Laws ana has
also contributed to railroad journals many
articles which have taken high stand
in that field of literature.
Insh his Boston article, President Hadley
presents both sides Of the case-the
case Of the people and the case of tile
railroads. and says that there Is enough
evil in the management of railroads to
make it worth while to study carefully
any measure that promises relief or i'm
provement, and there Is enough good to
makeit wise to reject unhcsitatingly the
Congress cnact, laws..wlthout such scrut-
my. 1t is manifest from this that while
President Hndley believes that regulation
is necessary. he LIZ opposed TO law
which shall give the Interstate Commerce
Commission power to fix rates "rhe
power to mako rates for tho traffic OF.
the United States'' says he. Us too vast
thing to be handled by tho machinery
OF the Interstate Commerce Commission,
even II the power and expense of that
machinery were considerably Increased.
The initiation OF successful rate policy
must come from the owner, not from
somebody else who trios 10 control the
action OTIS the owner Mr.. Hadley has
given this subject thorough investigations,
and does not know n single instance of
successful rate making by government
which attempted to control roads that
somebody else operated. In assigning
4 reason for this, he says that nj! bus-
ness has an experimental character; that
a corporation expanding hundreds Of
Thousands OF dollars to study traffic con-
diton all over Its territory can make Il
large number OF experiments for itself,
some of which will fail and Others sue
ceed 1T has in It's power to stop the
failures and pursue the successes. But
If somebody else, spending only small
& fraction of that amount Of money IN the
investigation OF that particular territory,
is making n schedule for it. there Is
less freedom TO make experiments, Ii
The rates turn out TO be too low, It
amounts to conhscalion.
'''rhe only alternative says he, sis
10 leave them too high--so high rs TO be
ineffective This is what. with the arrest
81 exceptions, has happened IN France ana
In lcngland-nay even In Germany at
the time when u large number OF the
German reads were owned By private
companies. II we put our Matchmaking
power into the hands of the Interstate
Commerce Commission. we might pos
3& sibly have a more even schedule than We
have at present But II the schedules
were adhered 10, II would unquestionably
mean much higher rates and smallc,
volume of traffic than We now enjoy; an(
II IL We're not adhered to, The evils o.
the determinations which all men VIII
have studied the subject regard as IN,
H most serious evil connected with railroa,
rates would tend not TO diminish bn
"a