The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-01-12
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Gem
eral Topics from
the Capital.
Jan. 6. 1905.


Jan. 6. 1905.
Rate legislation and the Phil
ippine tariff are the two queS-
tionS now occupying the mind of
Congress The Payne bill reduc-
ing the tariff to free trade on all
articles but tobacco and sugar is
a matter of almost aS general in
terest as is the railroad rate meas
ure. But of course railway leg
islatiOn affects more people in
this country than does the other
measure. The Hepburn Rate
Bill has he call in the House. In
the Senate there are half a dozen
measures iucnbating in tie com
mittee and there is no telling
which of them will be reported to
the Senate. 1t may he said that
nearly all OF the bills have the
same object in view, that is Civ
ing the Inter State Commerce
Commission power 10 fix a rate.
which ii ought To have hal in the
first place and which the original
bill obviously Intended that it
should have. But it is a matter
of history that this power was
left out lin the hurry of going
to press" The Hepburn bill in
addition to the rate making
feature, empowers the railroads
10 furnish icing. veutilating,
tranShipment aud several other
services under the guiSe of which
rebates are now paid. 1t will
make the way of the tranSgreSsor
a little barber i'll railroad matters
than heretofore, but no optimistic
big shipper would think for a
minute that the measure could
not be gotten ronnd 10 make the
collection of rebates almost as
easy as it was before. The whole
object of all the bills is 10 pre-
vent unjust discrimination. and
that Will never be done until there
Is some radical change in the re-
latiou of the railroads to the pub
lie by virtue of which the big
shipper cannot make and unmake
the railroads dividends.
There is one provision in the
Hepburn Bill that will meet with
the appreciation of the Inter
State Commerce Commission. 1t
increases the personnel Of the
commission from : TO 10, bnt it
raises the salaries of all the mem
bers to $4,000 a year. This will
make the places more acceptable
TO higher class of men. bur it is
not calculated to decrease the
rush for office to any extent even
among the less well qualified.
AS 10 the question of rebates.
the commission has had three
conferences in three weeks with
the representatives of both the
Eastern and Western trunk lines.
All the lines said that they were
going to be good and would agree
to stop giving rebates at all. If
this were done there would Ue
scarcely any need for rate iegis.
ton. Chairman Knapp of the
Interstate Commerce Commits
sion, says that he believes bus
mess honesty is coming to the
surface IN the minds OF a great
many shippers and that hey will
stand by their expressed inten-
ton lot TO ask for or recei> Z
rebates. This is optimism ont
Of sight upon the part OF Mr..
Knapp. He ought to remem Der
that several years ago. when the
rebate evil was more in the form
OF cash payments than it is now,
nearly all of the railroads OF the
country Assem- bled aud assured
the commission just as they have
now done, that they had granted
their last rebate AID were going
to lead henceforth a blameless
life They even appointed "a man
to keep al eye on themselves and
TO report any Violations OF the
law 10 the commission. The very
first report that this agent made
was followed by the loss of his
Job. Since then the railroads
have been giving all sorts of
rebates, direct aud indirect, and
1t was only when the danger of
rate legislation became pressing
that they came into camp and
promised to be good if the big
shippers would let them. That
that is not what the big shippers
are in business for.
One of the subjects that has
occupied the attention of social
and official circles in Washington
almost to the exclusion of Con
gress, is the treatment meeted
out to Mrs. Minor Morris at the
White House the other day. This