The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-05-18
RAILROAD REGULATION


lacks made upon the corporations the Chicago
Chronicle finds fault with Secretary Taft for
declaring himself an advocate of rate regulation
by the government. Contending that the power to
fix rates would confer no greater control over the
railways than that now possessed by the inter
state commerce commission, the Chronicle says:
Secretary Taft could hardly have made
it palmer that the only evil complained of
is discrimination; that is, secret deviation
from rates that have been made and pub
lished by railroad Officials 1t is not that
the rates made by these officials are in them
selves unjust, extortionate or in any way OPP
pressve, but that secret cutting of those
rates in favor of some large shippers works
great wrong to other shippers.
The secretary could hardly have made it
palmer that the remedy proposed for the evil
has no relation whatever to the evil itself.
The evil consists in secret cutting of rates,
but the remedy proposed is merely to give
commission power to fix maximum rate in
in any Irrigated case. 1t is too obvious for
argument that it is just as easy secretly
to cut rate made by a commission in a
litigated case as it is to cut rate made by
railroad company in any case 1t is too
obvious for argument that it is no more easy
to detect and punish the secret cutting of
rate made by government commission than
it is to detect and punish the cutting of
rate made by railroad company.
Secretary Taft, like all the rest of the
advocates of government rate-makng, pro-
poses to put a stop to rate-cutting by chang
ing the rate makers. He might as well pro-
pose to stop the crime Of burglary by taking
the building of houses from one set of men
and giving it to another set.
It is as plain as anything can possibly
be that if secret rate-cutting is the evil to be
cured, the way to cure it is to discover and
punish those who secretly cut rates and that
the substitution of one set of rate makers
for another set can not affect the evil in any
way.
That is why Mr.. Fish suggested that if
we want to stop secret rate-cutting for the
benefit of favored shippers to the injury of
others the proper thing to do is to enforce
the existing law, which forbids that sort Of
wrong and provides for the punishment of
those who commit it.
The Chronicle pays slight attention to the
fact that the fixing of a maximum charge would
prevent discrimination as between sections and
would aid all shippers collectively by establishing
fair charges. The contention that it would BIZ
just as easy to secretly cut rate made by {
commission as it is to cut the rates now made
by the railway companies contains much trutl
and serves to show that the people can not stol
short of government ownership The Chronicle
however fails to consider how effective the Law
might be made by the addition of a drastic crimi
nal clause. 1t admits that the present law ha
been a check upon the cutting of rates and tn
giving of rebates and commends President Fisl
for urging the enforcement of this law. TIL
Chronicle might fairly be asked why it favors
law which does some good and opposes NOR
radical law which would do more good?
Governor Hoch, of Kansas, who has earned
worldwide reputation by his war on Standar
oil IN Tes1ins MONTHLY for June will saw