The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1905-10-12
President Spencer of the
Southern Railway Conn
pany Says Government
Ownership Will Cause
Deterioration.
DRY ROT WILL RESULT
THE SUBSTITUTION OF A BU-
REAUCRACY FOR INDIVIDUAL
EFFORT CAN ONLY WORK IN
JURY QUESTION OF RATE IN
CREASE.

rs CREASE.
! In speech delivered before the New
! ark Board of Trade last night President
Samuel Spencer, of the Southern Rail-
way Company, discussing the proposed
national legislation to increase the pow
trs of the Interstate Commerce Commits
| sion, said in part
You have invited discussion of an
economic and industrial question of the
! utmost current Importance, and it is with
| d sense of responsibility that have ac-
! cepted your invitation to take part in it.
| THE problems of transportation and of
the prompt adjustment Of rates to the
| ever changing conditions and necessities
! cf our rapidly developing industries AMI
| trades both foreign and domestic have
| been in the past, and will be in the fu-
| ture. one of the controlling factors in the
maintenance of our commercial prosper
| ity, which under the existing system has
/ grown to a position of world supremacy.
No one influence has contributed more
| to this prosperity than the fact that the
channels of trade and commerce. through
which our producers and manufacturers
have reached market. have heretofore
| been free from the cumbersome dilator,
and retard;ng methods of governmental
control. which in other countries have
stihed progress and contributed mater
/ tally TO the continuance of high rates
I Cup to the present time shipper and
carrier have been free to work together
without political interference. to facili-
tate the establishment and development
of new industries; to reach out for new
markets for our farmers and manufact-
uEers; to create new communities and
| maintain the prosperity of those already
established; and to cooperate to the full
est possible extent to enlarge the volume
of both our domestic and foreign trade
1T is now proposed to change this sys-
tenn, and substitute for it one in which
artificial and bureaucratic methods VII,
take the place of the natural laws of
trade and commerce which have been the
controlling force in the evolution OF the
present system.
IF it We're proposed that the govern
ment should acquire the ownership of all
the railroads of the country, and assume
the responsibility for their operation and
management. the payment of their obli-
cations and the protection Of the capital
invested, entirely different questions
would arise. But that is not the plan
proposed by the legislation now being
urged. 1t is proposed to grant power
over the earning capacity without inn
4 posing corresponding responsibility for
the necessary expenses, and risks of
| conducting the business.
tNeither the pubic safety nor the pub
! lie welfare can be protected by substi-
tuting such a system for the one under
which the railroads of this country are
now operated, and under which the peo-
| pie at large have the best service at the
4 lowest rates of any country in the world.
1.-THE President in his last annual mes
sage laid special emphasis upon the ne,
for the keeping Of the highways of trans
/ portation open to all upon equal terms.
There Us no issue or controversy before
4 the people or Congress as to whether or
not rebates or secret Determinations
should be stopped No one desires more
than the railway managers themselves
that there should be an end to all such
practices. They are as detrimental to
the transportation interests as they are
to the great body of shippers.
The Commission has had presented to
it i'a eighteen years about four thousand
complaints, many requiring prolonged in
vesEigations and hearings, and in addi-
ton to the time consumed thereby much
additional time must have been required
to dispose Of the thirty-two hundred
complaints in which there were no for
NAL hearings and no record. In the
same period the United States Courts,
with its twenty-nine Circuit Judges and
seventy weight District Judges, have been
reqsIired to review but forty-fve cases.
s'lIt has been claimed that rates have
beer largely raised during the past few
years by changes of classification or by
increase ii the rates themselves. While