Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1905-11-01
FROM WASHINGTON.

Word has gone out that tne
Honorable Charles A. Prouty, one
g the Intertatc Commerce Com
fasteners. must resign. This is
- more importance than appears
~ face. because OF the insist
onco with which railroad rate legis-
I.,;or in the coming session of
congress. turns up rs live issue.
pronty is a thorn in the side of the
demonstration, and Teddy wants
- rst rid of him 50 Prouty must
o His offence WIS the discovery
,hot the Honorable Paul Morton,
o,.Secretary of the Navy. WAS
nrince of rebaters. and that IL the
President wanted to have the pub
10 believe that he was honest in
his assertions that he wanted to
,nnish rebaters. he must get after
paul with a sharp stick. Instead
bo got after him with whitewash
brpsh YOU remember, and Paul
went to the Equitable Life of New
York 10 rub off n little of that
wbitewash on some of the officials
Of that institution. Prouty un-
covered Morton's misdoings too
MAINLY to suit the Republican man
ayers and put Roosevelt in u bad
hole. OF course, Teddy crawled
ont of the hole as best he could,
and contcnted himself with a bluff
by ordering the prosecution of the
Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Rail
road as a corporation.
This decision will explain in
part. perhaps, why Mr.. 4. b.
Stickney. President of the Chicago
Great Western Railway. has said
that the Interstate Commerce Com
mission is "a body too cowardly to
carry out It's obligations Ifthey
carry them out their fate is that of
Prouty they must get out of Office.
Perhaps, too, it explains why Mr..
Stickney also said that no one Of
them has the courage TO make use
Of the power they possess. " The
Commission is just as full of poll
tics rs a Leghorn egg Is of meat.
and that is why they are cowa' dly.
II they do their duty they are up
against it in the way Prouty is, or
else they run into a pet Republican
graft like the Beef Trust. And If
they had made use of the power
that has been in their hands for
year, rebates. determinations and
other abuses would have vanished.
for the Lord knows they have got
power enough under the existing
statutes 10 stop any annoyances of
that kind in railroad management.
But the real milk in the cocOanut
is that the Republican party is.
and has been trying to build up the
Commission into a big machine for
the control of elections in close dis
trlctS in close States. | look at
tins from a political standpoint
purely, and say that if the Com
mission is given the power TO make
rates on all the railroads i'm the
country, it will not only be convert
ed into the biggest bureaucracy
that modern history tells of, bnt
Will be power that will forever
Keep the Democratic party from
landing where is belongs in Wash
mgton. The ethics of the case |
ignore absolutely in looking at this
political phase. 1t would take a
department with rs many men as
are IN all the other departments in
washington combined, to run the
commission if it had the power To
IN rates. What that means every
practical politician knows, and the
Democrats have got to look this
mlng squarely in the face rs a
caliSsue. Already Maryland
mas had to pass laws prohibiting
the oureaucrats here from going to
baltimore and converting it into 4
republican city 10y voting there.
no matter where their legal resi-
dence is. The political scheme of
Tue Republicans. if they can get a
o'g railroad bureau, is to have
branches located i'm close districts
where Republican votes and work
Sheeded to swing things their way.
IL Is pretty tough problem the
democrats are facing, whether to
@ccede to the demands of the West
40 increase the power OF the Inter
state Commerce Commission. or to
Duck against them, because they
see that if these powers be given,
u will crowd Thorn ont and creoto