Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-03-31
GOV CLMMINS ON IOWA RAILROAD
RATE LEGISLATION

I In the meantime something else was
happening On February l the jobbers
of city of Iowa met and took action
which sustained the following head
lines in a Des ,Ioines newspaper:
"A Protest from Sioux City. the
| Jobbers Association Deprecates the
| Proposed Radical Railroad Legisla-
| ton"
| Now, mind you, this protest was not
from the city where Representative
| Cummins lived but from the city
where the George d. Perkins influence
was paramount then as now. And this
| probably explains the attitude of Per-
kins at that time, for he did write
| something on the subject. 1t was at
| time when the whole state was agitat-
| ed, when the demand for reform was
| overwhelming, when the people were
seeking effective rate legislation, when
a general assembly elected for that
purpose was working out the new
problem carefully; yet here is What
George d. Perkins contributed to the
cause as an editorial in the Sioux
City Journal.
Experimental legislation should be
approached cautiously, for it is better
to grow into a new policy and to devel-
op results cautiously, occasioning the
least possible disturbance to settled
methods, than it is to go at an ideal
condition with long jump and then be
unable to maintain ones feet, or to find
that there are collateral conditions that
had not been foreseen, and that the po-
sition, in consequence, cannot be MAIN
tanned, while all The evil effects of the
disturbance of old relationships are to
be suffered nevertheless and be stood
up raggedly against courage In making
further efforts to correct recognized
abuses. 1t is prudent to go slow. This
is consistent with courage, as 1T in
wolves the greatest freedom from UNI
fortunate blunder. Therefore the leg
islature in dealing with the railroad
problem ought not to undertake too
much in one session. 1t ought not to
be ambitious to outrun popular de-
mand; it ought to be satisfied with
such enlargement of legal control as
the popular thought has worked out as
essential, and Their let the case rest for
adjustment and the development of
such further conditions as time may
develop as important. Not only is this
, wise policy so far as the public intent
| is involved, for the people do not know
what they want CIR what they require
except as they work out their problems
one by one in practical experience, but
it is good policy so far as the railroad
properties Of the state are concerned,
for they are operated under an intri-
cate machinery, dangerously suscepti-
BILE to sudden and radical changes. and
the management should be given time
to make adjustments to changed con-
ditions without shock"
Note the familiar line of argument.
Happily the Legislature went at the
ideal condition with long jump" it
did not fear to undertake too much in
one session." it did not wait for the
popular thought to work out as es-
sential" all the details. and it did as
sumo that the people know what they
want. Neither was there any consid-
Grafton Of the prospective Shock" to
the railroad managers. The twenty
second general assembly listened not to
the voice of standpatism, but gave Iowa
law which did not need to wait for
adjustment and the development of
such further conditions as time may
develop" We have been assured Per-
kins was supporting Governor LARA
bee; was he also on the other side of
the question as usual?
Who then was standpatter and who
reformer? over whose head was it that
Iowa secured effective rate legislation
in 1883? John Jackson may be ex-
cused personally from committing this
blunder of trying to make black APP
pear white and vice versa, for he is
but an amateur in the business and his,
familiarity with stare politics is of re-
cent development, but certainly Mr..
Blythe's memory runs back to the ses-
sion of 1888, when, as Governor LARA
bee has repeatedly said, he was sup
ported in his reform movement by
Representative Cumlnins.
Keep history straight.