The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-06

ments, whether in this form or in the form of fictitious damages, or of a con- l oession, 8 free pass, reduced passenger | rate, or payment of brokerage, is il-
 legal. It is worth while considering
 whether it would not be wise to con- | fer on the Government the right os 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 1 ances should be stopped, for they have ! now grown to such an extent that they
 are demoralizing and are used as re- 1 bates.
 1 The best possible regulation of rates
 would, of course, be that regulation se- l cured by an honest agreement among the railroads themselves to carry out
 the law Such 8 general agreement
 would, for instance, at once put stop i 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 enforc- l ing 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 accom- panied by power to permit, under
 specified conditions and careful super i vision, agreements clearly in the in-
 terest of the public. But, in my judg
 ment, the necessity for giving this
 further power is by no means as great as the necessity for giving the Com . ie;o otI,
 CT powers have enumerated above;
 and it may well be inadvisabla to at-
 tempt to vest this particular power in
 the Commission or other administrative
 body until it already possesses and is exercising what I regard as by far the most important of all the powers rec ommend-as indeed the vitally import ant power-that to fix given maxi mum rate, which rate, after the lapse nf a reasonable time, goes into full ef- 7 feet, subject to review by the courts.
 - All priyate-car lines, industrial roads } refrigerator charges, and the like,
 should be expressly put under the sup ervision of the Interstate Commerce commission or some similar body so far as rates, and agreements practically - affecting rates, are concerned. The private-car owners and the owners of , industrial railroads are entitled to a : fair and reasonable. compensation on their investment, but neither private cars nor industrial railroads nor spur tracks should be utilized as devices for securing preferential rates. A rebate in icing, charges, or in mileage, or in a division of the rate for refrigerating charges is just as pernicious as a re- bate in any other way. No lower rate shoul apply on goods imported than actually obtains on domestic goods from the Ameriqan seaboard to desti- , nation except cases where water competition is the controlling influence } There should ba publicity of the ac- , counts of common carriers; no com : mon carrier engaged in interstate busi- T. ness should keep any books or memo randa other than those reported pur- suant 10 law or regulation, and these books or memoranda should be open tc
 the inspection of the Government. Only in this way can violations or evasions . of the law be surely detected. A sys. tenn of examination of railroad ac. counts should be provided similar tt ? that now conducted into the nationa banks by the bank examiners; a few s first-class railroad accountants, if they had proper direction and proper au' [ thority to inspect books and papers . could accomplish much in preventing willful violations of the law. It would l not be necessary for them to examine [ into the accounts of any railroad un' - less for good reasons they were directed l to do so by the Interstate Commerce . Commission. Itis greatly to be desired . that some way might be found bJ which an agreement as to transporta l tion within a state intended to operate ) as fraud upon the Federal interstate 7 commerce laws could be brought under } the jurisdiction of the Federal authori ties At present it occurs that large shipments of interstate traffic are con t trolled by concessions on purely statt v business, which of course amounts tC 3 an evasion of the law. The Commis 3 sion should have power to enforce fail 5 treatment by the great trunk lines O } lateral and bral Hh lines.
 3 urge upon the congress the need O. ~I | l terstate Commerce Commission in al these matters, whether in regulating l rates for transportation or for storing or for handling property or conmodi 7 ties in transit, The history of the case' t litigated under the present commerct l act shows that it's efficacy has been tI 5 g. great degree destroyed by the weapon t of delay, almost the most formidable t weapon in the hands of those whose 7 purpose it is to violate the law.
 Let me most earnestly say that thest 7 recommendations are not made in any spirit of hostility to the railroads. Or P ethical grounds, on grounds of right l such hostility would be intolerable; ant on grounds of mere national self-in
 terest we must remember that sucl hostility would tell against the welfart
 not merely of some few rich men, bu of a multitude of small investors, { multitude of railway employees, wage , workers; and most severely agains the interest of the public as a whole , I believe that on the whole our rail roads have done we'll and not i'll; bu the railroad men who wish to do vel should not be exposed to competition with those who have no such desire and the only way to secure this end i' to give to some Government tribuna the mower to see that justice is done