The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-10
JUSTICE GAYNoR's REMEDY.

1T Ills Rebate Correction Theory Is
 Right It should Be Relentlessly ap-
 piled,
 The suggestion made by Judge
 William J. Gaynor in a speech deliver
 ed in Boston on Saturday, that the
 general freight agents of every rail-
 road should be appointed by the
 general government. is somewhat
 startling. Is there any law or any
 clause in the Constitution under which
 such appointments could be made? Is
 there any power in Congress to enact
 a law which would complel railroad l companies to accept the freight agents
 selected for them by the President or
 other agency of the federal govern
 ment? Judge Gaynor is an eminent,
 lawyer and has doubtless considered
 the changes necessary to make his | suggestions effective. Mir. Bryans | suggestion of ultimate ownership and
 operation by the federal government of all the trunk lines was received by
 the people with general dissent. The main objection urged against the plan, outside of the practical difficulty of financing the scheem, was the centra-
 lization of such vast power( in the United States government, by the ex-
 ercise of which the autonomy of the
 states might soon disappear and by
 which the party in power could with
 out difficulty so manipulate and con
 trol the vast army of employees as to
 perpetuate its rule against the will of
 the people.
 Judge Gaynor's plan gets rid of the
 financial difficulties of the scheme, but
 1t is open to all the other objections.
 The general freight agent with the
 power of controlling rates is a mighty factorn railroad management, and the political infunence of a government railroad agent would be almost over- whelming. The party in power, find- ing it so advantageous to appoint freight agents, would be quick to in- crease the advantage by appointing the presidents of the various conn panies, and through them it would be easy to control the appointment of all the ticket agents, tracR-walkers, con ductors, engineers and brakemen, clerks and station agents, and, in fact, the whole army of voters employed by the railroad.
 by the railroads of the country
 The disease for which Judge is pre- scriblng is favortism in rates. It is an evil which has produced untold mischief to the whole country and has brought ruin upon thousands of in- dustries and broken up thousands of homes. The richest and most des- potic and most consclenceless of the trusts arose to power through re- bates and rate favoritism.
 This was shown by the Congression- al investigation of trusts along about 1888. There it was shown that rate fayortism and rebates had been se- cured largely by the use of brbes 1 among railroad officials, and then when the companies so favored grew by reason of that favoritism to be more powerful than the railroads they got by threats and [ that which they had pre- ' vlously obtained by bribes, A strln- gent law prohibiting rebates was en- acted but to judge by recent disclos- ures, without much apparent effect. What the drastic prohibition of the new rate law and the increased penal ties prescribed will do remains t. be seen. Judge Gaynor admits that fe- leral freight agent might also accept l bribe. "But let us remember," he ldds, that not the rule, but the ex- option for high officials appointed oy the Presidents of the United States, ,r Governors, to accept bribes"
 If there ds any disposition among to continue rate discrlmna- ions and favoritism, the remedy pre- 'eribed in the new rate law should be applied, and the most ap- ,roprlate and effective part of that emedy is the imprisonment of the ailroad official, however high his ocial position or his railroad who hall countenance this great wrong. Udge Gayncr says that this favorl- ism in freight rates Is the greatest rime of our day and generation. "It as done more wrong and worked nore evil than all of the ordinary rlmes for which we imprison men very day" Two men or two corporations are ngaged in the same business side by idle. The freight bills of one are 10000 a year less than those of the ther for the same service. The one