Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-05

| firmative and should be given to some | administrative body created by the congress. If given to the present in | terstate commerce commission or to a 1 reorganized interstate commerce com mission, such commission should be made unequivocally administrative. I do not believe in the government inter fering with private business more than is necessary. I do not believe in the government undertaking any work which can with propriety be left in pri- yate hands. But neither do believe | in the government fiinching from oyer- seeing any work when it becomes eyi- dent that abuses are sure to obtain | therein unless there is governmental supervision. It is not my province to indicate the exact terms of the law which should be enacted, but I call the attention of the congress to certain ex- ! isting conditions with which it is desir- able to deal. In my judgment, the most important provision which such | law should contain is that conferring upon some competent administrative body the power to decide, upon the case ! being brought before it, whether given rate prescribed by a railroad is reason able and just and if it is found to be unreasonable and unjust, then, after full investigation of the complaint, to prescribe the limit of rate beyond which it shall not be lawful to go-the ,,,o x;o,,,,, blo ratn if ic anTl- monIy called-this decision to go into effect within reasonable time and to obtain from thence onward, subject to review by the courts. It sometimes happens at present, not that rate is too high, but that favored shipper is given too low rate. In such case the commission would have the right to fix this already established minimum rate as the maximum, and it would need only one or two such decisions by the commission to cure railroad companies of the practice of giving improper min imum rates. I call your attention to the fact that my proposal is not to give the commission power to initiate or originate rates generally, but to regu- late a rate already fixed or originated by the roads upon complaint and after investigation. A heavy penalty should be exacted from any corporation which fails to respect an order of the commis- sion. I regard this power to establish any scheme of real reform in the mat ter of railway regulation. The first necessity is to secure 1t, and unless it is granted to the commission there is little use in touching the subject at all.
 Illegal transactions often occur un- der the forms of law. It has often oc- cured that shipper has been told by a traffic officer to buy a large quantity of some commodity, and then after it has been bought an open reduction is made in the rate to take effect imme- diately, the arrangement resulting to the profit of the one shipper and the one railroad and to the damage of all their competitors; for it must not be forgotten that the big shippers are at least as much to blame as any railroad in the matter of rebates. The law should make it clear so that nobody can fail to understand that any kind of commission paid on freight ship ments, whether in this form or in the form of fictitious damages or of con- cession, a free pass, reduced passen- ger rate or payment of brokerage, is illegal It is worth while considering whether it would not be wise to confer on the government the right of civil action against the beneficiary of a rebate for at least twice the value of the rebate. This would help stop what is really blackmail. Elevator allow ances should be stopped, for they have now grown to such an extent that they are demoralizing and are used as re- bates.
 The best possible regulation of rates would, of course, be that regulation se- cured by an honest agreement among the railroads themselves to carry out the law. Such a general agreement would, for instance. at once put stop to the efforts of any one big shipper or big railroad to discriminate against or secure advantages over some rival. and such agreement would make the railroads themselves agents for en- forcing the law. The power vested in the government to put a stop to agree ments to the detriment of the public should, in my judgment, be accompa- nied by power to permit under specified conditions and careful supervision agreements clearly in the interest of the public. But. in my judgment, the necessity for giving this further pow CT is by no means as great as the ne cessry for giving the commission or administrative body the other powers I have enumerated above. and it may well be inadvisabie to attempt to vest this particular power in the commis- sion or other administrative body until it already possesses and is exercising what l regard as. by far the most im- portant of all the powers recommend as indeed the vitally important pow er-that to fix a given maximum rate. which rate after the lapse of a reason able time goes into full effect. subject to review by the courts.
 All private car lines, industrial roads, refrigerator charges and the like should be expressly put under the su- pervisi0n of the interstate commerce commission or some similar body SO far as rates and agreements practical ly affecting rates are concerned. The private car owners and the owners of industrial railroads are entitled to a fair and reasonable compensation on