Arizona republican., 1906-12-29
PHOENIX ARIZ.. DEC. 29, 1906.
DEATH OF PRESIDENT CAssATT.

DEATH OF PRESIDENT CAssATT.
 President A. J. Cassatt of the Penn syfvania system. who died yesterday. was 2 typical railroad president. Or. il should be said that he was a railroad president of the highest type. As all fzf-SeeinG railroad men do. he labored fur the aggrandiEemeRt of his system which can always be better accom- plished by the development of terri tory and the ipcrease of prosperity throughout the territory covered by the ssten. The accumulation of great wealth for himself and the stockhold- CTS oG the road was a secondary matter only an incident Of a general plan.
 Mir. Cassatt is said 10 have been the originator of the idea of railroad regu- iaiIon. That is, he was the first 10 suggest intelligent regulation. though persons of pOpulistic tendencies had years before proposed railroad regu- lation in forms varying through gov ernment control government confis- cation and government ownership, ac- cordinE to the wildness of the popu- lism of the advocates.
 MT. Cassatt had put in force on his own lines his idea of railroad regula- ton long before he directed President Roosevelts attention to the general need of it on other lines. There was no relating on the Pennsylvania lines, no secret rate, and the pass system. the other great crying evil, had all but been wiped out.
 IL is not to be supposed however, that in MT. Cassett's suggestions to the president there were included any of those follies which were afterward in- corporated into the rate bill or any Of those others which were proposed for incorporation. but were rejected. Mir. Cassatt never advised that the railroads should be put undet the con- trol of a body of inexperienced meE selected largely for political reasons.
 
 depriving of railroads of the constitu- tional right of appeal from the findings of such an inexperienced and to a cer- tain extent, irresponsible body.
 It could not have occurred to him that his suggestions would be develop ed into a plan for hampering the de velopment and the growth of railroads What he proposed was for the benefit Of all roads and for the great body of their patrons. Practices which had been proved to be evils were to be made punishable offenses, but the whole business of railoading was no- to be regarded as a suspected crime.
 It is not to be supposed that the leg islation proposed by MT Cassatt to President Roosevelt would remove grievances all over the country. In the very nature of things there could be no such legislation and to at tempt it would only make matters worse. The roads themselves would have obviated all complaints if they could have done so without creating others equally loud and well grounded. ! The very complexity of the railroad 1 business or the United States renders absolute justice to every section and 1 shipping point in the country impos- l sible until the last mile of road has | been built and until there has been the | last possible shift in conditions. The legislation proposed by MT. Cas- satt was such as could be enforced to | the good of the greatest number. It turned out that while the rate bill | was pending there were disclosures Of | relations between the Pennsylvania | and the coal companies which were l seized upon as proof that Mir. Cassat; l had not been sincere. It was alleged | that the road had been engaged in | discrimination in favor of certain coal i companies. A long investigation how | ever, showed only that certain offic- l ials of the system and not high offlc- | ials either, had in consideration of | stock in those coal companies, favored | them in the matter of cars. The l knowledge of such discrimination was | never traced to any high official of the system much less to the head of it. l.