Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-30

MUST not be understood as oppoS
ing legislation for he proper regu'
= lation of railways. 1 am not at
tempting to defend any wrong prac-
tees or hurtful policies. believe that
I speak for practically every RESPONSE
BILE railway manager in the United
States when I say that 1 favor such
governmental regulation as is neces-
sary to prevent determinations between
| shippers and travellers and to prevent
unreasonable or exorbitant charges. ON
the ethical side of railway management,
| legislation cannot be made too strin-
gent. but on the economic side legisla-
| tive enactments should be avoided. The
object should be restraint from wrong,
rather than the management of busi-
ness in which private individuals as
sumo all the risk.
On the ethical side of railway man
| agement a great deal has been accom-
plished. There has not only been an
awakening of the public conscience, but
there has been an awakening of the
corporate conscience as well, and many
| of the faults of railway management
that were justly causes of complaint
have been made to appear In their just
| light and have been corrected. The
grounds of just public complaint
against the railways having been re-
IiONtu III large part IL IiOI illllOSI VI
tirely, the time has now come to look
to the safety of property rights. and
to consider whether a policy that VIII
result in the impairment of railway
credit is not as little to be justified as
damming up the rivers and filling up
the harbors of the country.
1t is the right and duty of the gov
ernment to protect the public from op-
preston and wrong. When that has
been done the limit of the right of gov
e1nmental regulation of privately owned
railways is reached. The purchaser of
transportation and the public gener-
ally have a right to demand that the
charges of the carriers shall be rea-
sonable and that they shall not be dis
criTlif1d tory, SO as to place individuals
or localities or commodities at an un-
just commercial disadvantage. No
purchaser of transportation has the
right to expect or demand that the rail-
way shall perform any service for him
at less than :, reasonable charge, and,
consequently, the right of governmental
regulation does not extend to the point
of requiring any service to be per-
formed for less than a reasonable
charge for that specific service. Pub
lie sentiment and the laws of the land
recognize the right of any other busi-
ness enterprise to receive a reasonable
price for what 1t sells. This right is
an incident to all property, and do
believe that when public sentiment fully
realizes that a railway is simply a busi-
ness enterprise, engaged in the produc-
ton and sale of transportation, 1t Will
advocate policies that would deny the
right to charge a reasonable, and not
discriminatory, price for the commodity
which it sells. 1 believe that an intellt-
gent public sentiment will recognize
that this is right justly inherent in
the property of the carrier. and one that
cannot be justly or constitutionally de-
MED to it. To deny his right to the
carrier would be clearly confiscation OF
its property. In other words, carrier
has performed it's full public duty in
respect to its charges when it has
a reasonable scale of rates
and has refrained from discrimination
in rates or facilities as between indi-
viduals, localities and commodities.
After it has discharged and complied
with these and it's other public obliga-
tions, the balance of it's property is
private property and should be resected
as such by governmental policy and
public sentiment.
There is at the present time much
discussion of propositions for valua-
ton OF the railways Of the United
States by federal authority and the en-
of legislation for the preven-
ton of overcapitali2ation. In some
quarters exaggerated ideas as to the
extent OF the alleged overcapitalization
of railways have prevailed. While the
capitalization of each road must be
considered by itself, 1 think it can be
truthfully said that the railways Of the
United States, considered as whole,
are not overcapitalized. Students OF
railway capitalization and value know
that there has been much exaggeration
in the talk of overcapitalization. Presi-
dent Roosevelt, for instance, in his
speech at Indianapolis on Decoration
day, declared:
"There has been much wild talk as to
the extent of the overcapitalization of
our railroads The h7ge value
OF terminals, the immense expenditures
In recent years in double tracking, i'm
proving grades, roadbeds and struc-
lures, have brought the total invest
ments to a point where the opinion that
the real value is greater than the face
value is probably true"
These questions of valuation and cap
italization are, in tie main, of inter-
est to the buyers of railway securities,
but they are of small practical interest
to the traveller or shipper, for the rea-
son that they do not govern the liking
oe railway charges. The railway in this
respect is much like newspaper. Each