The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-03-29

One of the strangest things in con-
nection with the fight over the railroad
rate is the way in which it has devel-
oped such radical differences of opin.
ion between people who at the outset
thought they were in perfect harmony
i Many men have come around t.
President Roosevelt's point of view
since he began his crusade, and he has
received aid from unexpected quarters
On the other hand, there have been
many who patted him on the back
when he announced his intention OF
regulating railroad rates, but who
having found the president actually
proposes to put on the statute books
the views he expressed, now are bitter
! ly assailing him.
! Cassett's Change.
| Originally President Cassett, of the
Pennsylvania road was opposed vio-
lently to rate regulation. Then he soft
ened his views and announced that he
would not fight the Hepburn bill When
that bill finally was pessed through
the house and reached the senate the
Pennsylvania railroad influence as rep
resented by the ewo senators from
that state, was thrown bitterly against
| the Hepburn measure
Democrats, who could not have been
| helped the two western republicans to
get the Hepburn bill out of committee
and before the senate and save it
from meeting the fate of the Philip
pine tariff, which now is hung up in
committee by a combination of much
the same forces as are ranged against
the rate bill.
MeIIen's Flop.
Absolutely the queerest change of
front during the whole of this extraor-
binary campaign has been that exc
cuted by Charles S. Mellen, president
of the New York. New Haven & Hart
ford railroad. Mellen appeared before
the "Get Together club Monday
night in Hartford and openly and
above-b board, slashed the Hepburn bill
in an indiscriminate fashion.
Over at the White House people are
contemplating this outburst of Mellen
with a mixture of amazement and
amusement. Everybody here in Wash
ington knows the history of the Hep
burn bill and it is not worth while re-
peating it except in a few words 1t
was the old Collum amendment re-
modelled by the interstate commerce
commission, touched up by Senator
Dolliver, authorized by Attorney Cen
eral Moody, further amended by Hep
burn, scrutinized in the most careful
fashion and approved, section by Sec
ton and word by word, by President
Roosevelt
Attack on the Bill.
OHueT lHSSc circumstances tiiSAS 10
a great deal of significance in Mellen's
speech, and particularly in the follow
ing sensational paragraph:
Benedict Arnold thought of no
greater damage to the interests of this
section than it is possible to cause
through the powers granted in this bill,
and you must consider not so much the
disposition of those framing it as the
measure of the grant it contains"
Now. a curious thing about it all is
that this same Charles S. Mellen, pres
ident of the New York, New Haven &
Hartford railroad, which has the repu-
tation of being the meanest and most
line in the United
States. with the possible exception ofw
the Boston & Maine, was the inspira-
ton for the original message of Presi-
dent Roosevelt, in which he proposed
the immediate passage of a law giving
the interstate commerce commission
power to regulate rates.
MeIIen and the Message.
The railroad president referred to in
the presidents message sent to con-
gress in 1904 was no less than this
Charles S. Mellen, president OF the
New York, New Haven & Hartford
railroad, and it was he who furnished
the text for President Roosevelt to
recommend to congress the passage of
4 law giving the interstate commerce
the right to fix rates.
1t is no wonder the people at the (
White House are getting up a deadly
parallel which will go far to induce
many people to believe that President
fellen thought one thing when he was ,