New-York tribune., 1906-08-29
APPLYING THE RATE BILL.

The Hepburn rate bill went into effect yes
terday. Nevertheless the Republic still lives
and the railroads.&c. judge from recent devel-
opments in Wall Street-are waxing fat and
kicking like Jeshurun. We were assured last
winter by eloquent Senators and Representa-
tives that the passage of the Hepburn measure
would be the signal for a cataclysm in our
political and economic order We were told
that our constitutional fabric would be shat
tered. centra lization would override the checks
wisely put on federal power by Jefferson and
his followers and individualism would perish in
the jaws OF cOlectivism. The Hon. Samuel w.
Mccall with due sense of the value In rhet-
oric of classical allusOn and embellishments
lkened the action of Congress in intruSung the
regulation of railroad rates to federal board TO
the rash experiment of Apollo in cOnfding the
chariot of the sun to the guidance of the nerve
less and inexperienced PhaetOn. The char
ioteers Of the Interstate Commerce Commission,
Mr. Mccall predicted, would put our Ameri-
"can consultations to fight dry up the courses
''of our iron rivers and make Of our fertile
''prairies the sands of another Libya.' 1t IS
two months since the rate law was signed, and
as yet there are no indications that "Our iron
rivers" are going to shrivel in their beds. The
iron streams Of the great Western desert are
apparently flowing at a new and record break
ing stage of high water, if the Union P"cihc's
tAulDaLOu OL u4t1QSuU paying MY
proves anything No one in railroad circles is
going short on prosperity because the Inter
state Commerce Commission has been reorgan-
lied and is about 10 put the Hepburn law into
operation. Nor are any earthquake survivors
camping among the ruins of our constitutional
temple and listening dejectedly to the "l-told-
yOu-sos' of some JeffersOnian prophet
Only one person we know of is acting as If
ne felt the earth a little shaky beneath him.
President George F. Baer Of the Reading Rail-
road admits that he isn't sure just where he's
at" He has studied the rate law, he says but
can't understand ii, and intends to keep on
operating the Reading Railroad after the old
fashion till somebody halts him. Yet he does
not entirely despair of the Constitution and the
Republic. We think he may eventually be
spurred into mastering the law and enforcing
it, especially if he goes into the federal courts
In search of pointers. Yet his present attitude
is significant chiefly in that it emphasizes his
isolation from other railroad managers, who,
as a rule, have accepted the Hepburn law as
fGit GccOmpH, and have set about accommodate
ing themselves to the new order without fric-
ton and without resentment.
1t will be found, indeed, that the opposition
to rate regulation was based largely on misun-
derstandings and misrepresentation. The att1-
tude OF the Pennsylvania Railroad toward the
Hepburn bill was based on broader knowledge
and sOunder policy than were exhibited by GER
tain other railroad interests, and the railroads
as a whole are now finding out that the new
law was intended to do them no injustice and
to deprive them Of no power or advantage which
they could not reasonably be asked to surren-
der to the government The present Quiescence
of the railroads contrasts startlingly with the
intense and feverish clamOr raised six months
ago when the Hepburn bill was in the Senate.
But il is only normal to live and learn. The
Tribune insisted last winter that the fierce
dust raising discussions at Washington were
for the most part, beside the point and could
be dismissed as Of little consequence. The
subsistence of Fictitious noise and feeling now
reveals the real attitude of the country toward
the rate bill and the almost universal readi-
ness of the railroads to recognize that attitude
and to fashion their policies SO as to conform
! 10 il.