Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-10-23
sHALLowNEss OF LA TOILETTE

Minneapolis Journal-Senator La
Toilette has branded all those who dis
agree with him over his amendments
to the railroad rate bill as traitors to
the cause of the people. The penalty
for refusing to follow the Wisconsin
senator wherever he chooses to lead
is to be held up before the people in
the light of a corporation tool. 1t is
too much to assume that wisdom be-
gins and ends with La Toilette. This
was very clearly demonstrated the
other day by Congressman Stevenson
of Crookstoon, in speech at Grafton,
N. d.
Mr.. Stevenson discussed the much
advertised valuation amendment"
which Senator La Toilette sought to
attach to the rate bill, and without
which he says it is valueless. If La
Toilette is right, said Mr.. Steenerson,
then all concerned In preparation Of
the bill, including President Roosevelt,
Attorney General Moody, all the mem
bers of the interstate commerce COM
mission, all the members of the house
committee and all the republican SEN
ators but three, have joined to per-
petuate fraud on the American peo-
pie. Either that is true, or else the
Wisconsin senator is mistaken as to
the essential character Of his amend
ment. He justifies it under the Sill
premes courts decision in the Ne
braska case, Smith VS.. Ames, which
said that the basis for all calculation
as to the reasonableness Of rates Is
the fair value of the property. Several
factors in this value are mentioned,
and among them is the probable earn
ing capacity under the particular rates
prescribed" But the La Toilette
amendment called for valuation to
be made by experts at an expense of
$5,000,000, before any rate changes
should be made. Then, as Mr.. Steiner
son shows, it would be impossible to
make correct valuation, because the
experts would not have any means of
getting at the earning capacity under
The fact is, rate reductions have been
litigated many times in the past TWEEN
ty years, and in every case the state
and federal courts have allowed tho
value Of the property to be established
In the ordinary way, without getting
evidence by wholesale in advance. The
states that so far have made whole
sale valuations of railroad property
have done SO for taxation purposes.
When Wisconsin sought to regulate
freight rates, it was done mainly by
comparison with Iowa and Illinois. but
neither of those states ever made a
valuation of railroad property. Rate
reductions made in that way have
been repeatedly upheld by the courts.
Yet all the men who refused to fol-
low Senator La Toilette in advocating
his amendment, from President Roose-
welt down, are branded as traitors,
false to their trust
Mr.. STEVENSON disposed of another
La Toilette amendment very briefly.
1t was drawn to disqualify judges who
held stock in any railroad company,
or who carried passes on the road,
from sitting in cases against the COM
pany. This is entirely superfuous, be-
cause judges are already barred by
the general law from sitting in cases
affecting roads in which they hold
stock. AS to passes, the bill already
contained an anti-pass section Judges
carrying passes would be liable to i'm
parchment for violating the law. and
it would be queer anti-climax to pro-
hibit them from sitting on cases
against roads which gave them passes.
They should be impeached rather than
barred. This amendment comes dan
gerously near the line of buncombe
AS Congressman Stevenson says,
the senator from Wisconsin should
acknowledge that he Is mistaken, or
at least that the question of the neces-
sity or advisability of his amendments
is one upon which honest and upright
minds may differ" That is not his
disposition, however. He is going
into the states represented by sena-
tors who refused to grab his leading
strings and telling the people that by