The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-13
Are Largely in Accord With
 Democratic Doctrine
HAS THREE PROPOSITIONS
Legislation of Railway Pools Must Re- suit or Further Uniflcatlon of Ownership or Absolute Gov
 ernment Ownership.

Washington, February 12.-(Special.)- The views of Secretary of the Navy Nor ton on railroad rate legislation as recent ly expressed have attracted much atten- ton at the capitol Although MT Nor ton has explicitly stated they must not in any way be taken as the views of the administration they are naturally accepted as the views which, he as one of the advisers of President Roosevelt, Is constantly presenting to the Presi- dent, and therefore are presumed to have exercised more or less influence on the attitude of the administration. Ger tain of these opinions thus publicly eX- pressed are regarded by some legislators as more in accordance with democratic than republican doctrine, and already some of the democratic senators have voiced similar sentiments.
 Mir. Morton states as his belief that "one of three things is sure to take place in the conduct of our railway systems" those being 'legalization of pools, "the further unification of ownership or government ownership" The first propo- sition Is supported by the railroads and was contained in the old Corliss- Nelson bill, but is extremely unpopular in Con- gress, so much so that Representative Mann of Illinois, a member of the House committee on interstate commerce, re- gently stated such a measure would have no more chance in Congress than a snow flake in hades." The third, gov ernment ownership" is, if anything, un- disputably democratic idea; the second, the further unification of ownership" has already been advocated by some of the democrats, and Senator Newlands of Nevada urges the creation of joint com mission of the Senate and House to pre- pare a national incorporation act which shall promote the further unification of the railway system. On this point MT. Morton, after urging the legalization of pooling, says:
 "2 The further unification of owner ship, thereby delivering in time the en- tire railway ownership of the country into the hands of few individuals or one syndicate. This condition has already been hurried and helped along by the absence of pooling, and while I am ono of those who believe 1t would not be a calamity if all the railways in, the | United States could be owned by one | | aged purely and simply as a railway proposition, I have grave doubts that | this is practicable and fear that so much | concentrated power would be misused' ' | If 1t should be he sees nothing left but | government ownership, the worst of the three evils If such they may be called" :"
 Newlands Wants Middle Path.
 Rejecting legalzed pooling as an inn possibility and agreeing with MT. Morton | that government ownership is the worst of the three evils" Senator New lands seeks the middle path, that of encouraging the unificat.on of the rail- l roads into a few systems or even one 1 system, but giving the government ab- | solute control over the conduct of such | unified system or systems by the exer- else of the rate-making and taxing power. On this subject. Senator New lands said today
 There are about two thousand rail- | way corporations of which about six hundred are operating companies and these have fallen under the control of certain systems. so that today 1t is a recognized fact that almost all the rail- | road trackage of the country is under the control of eight or ten systems, each of which is under the absolute direction | and control of either single man or a group composed of a small number of men. I regard this as a natural and practical evolution of the railroad busi- ness, resulting so far as the economic operations of the roads is concerned, In advantage and not disadvantage, and 1 operating, so far as the convenience of
 the public is concerned. to their ad- vantage and not to their disadvantage,
 and only likely to operate against the | interest of the country when we con- | sider the question of rates, or rebates
 and of dlscriminations. It Is with ref
 erence to these matters. then that the
 railroads should be brought under some
 form of unified control. and that uni
 fled control should be exercised in such
 a way as not to impair the initiative the
 energy and the enterprise of the oper-
 ators of these great railroads.