East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1907-01-10

10 Inquire Into All Train Wrecks
Responsibility Mixed for Too Low
Valuation OF Railroad Property.
'Soon after the legislature con-
venes at Olympia the state railroad
commission will cause to be intro
duced bill extending the jurisdic-
tion Of the commission so as to cover
electric suburban and interurban lines
and containing such other amend
ments as are considered by the mem
bers OF the commission vital to the
adequate discharge of its proper
functions" said Railroad Commits
sioner j. c. Lawrence Saturday night
at meeting of the eastern Washing
ton members of the legislature, held
at the office of Representative ]. NJ.
Thompson in Spokane, and reported
in the Yakima Republic.
While we are asking at the pres
ent time for but a few vital amend
ments of the commission law, 1t is
my judgment that eventually the
commission should be given authority
to regulate all public service corpor-
ations, If not all corporations permit
ted to do business in the state as
provided by the New York law, which
makes the commission in that state a
commission of corporations.
THE bill which we shall propose
will also give the commission ample
authority to investigate all train
wrecks where loss of life occurs, in
order that the responsibility for
such wrecks may be established by
some competent public authority It
will give the commission authority to
regulate grade crossings of railroads
and highways, and railroads with each
other and to conduct hearings for the
purpose of ascertaining in a judicial
manner the value of railroad proper
ty.
I'VE have already done much work
along the line of ascertaining the
original construction and present
values of the railroads in this state
and have secured information of this
character from original sources which
the railroads themselves insisted for
a while was not in existence. We
have progressed with this work al
ready to the point where we are to
approximate the value of railroads in
Washington and the total is between
$150,OOO,OOO and S2OO.OOO,OOO.
At this point in his discussion Com
missioner Lawrence was visibly en-
barrassed by a question asked him
by Representative Hutchinson of Spo-
kane county relative to the values
fixed on railroad property for pur-
poses Of taxation. Mr.. Hutchinson
asked:
This railroad property which YOU
speak Of is assessed for purposes of
taxation at a little more than $3O,-
100000. Who is responsible for this
16 per cent assessment on railroad
property while other property is as
sessed at 80 per cent of its value?"
Officially. as a member of the
railroad commission" replied Com
missioner Lawrence, II do not know
who is responsible for the assessed
value of railroad property. As a pri-
vate citizen I might say that / un-
derstand that the scale of assessment
valuations was established by con-
vention of the county assessors"
rs 1t not a fact" persisted Rep
resentative Hutchinson. that this
grossly inadequate assessment valua-
ton on railroad property was fixed
by the state tax commission"
To this question Commissioner
Lawrence ventured no reply.
In the course of his address to the
Commissioner Lawrence was
asked questions by the legislators re-
garding the cause for the existing
car shortage. Representative Hutch
inson declared that he had report |
made by a man employed by him
that there were 500 empty |
freight cars standing on the side |
tracks in Spokane while wheat along |
the lines near this city is rotting in |
piles along the tracks for want Of |
Commissioner Law
renee replied:
zone Of the causes of the car short
age is that the big railroad owners
who hold the purse strings have been
unable to appreciate the tremendous
y rapid rate at which the business of
he country is growing and have but
prepared for handling l
his increased traffic. II
There is another theory on which
We account for it and we think we
ire on a fair way to establish the
ruth of 1t and that is that the rail-
oads running through this state have
merely provided sufficient equipment
or moving westbound traffic. The
'astbound traffic in forest products
s 50 tremendous that i'm order to
move IL would be necessary for the
to move cars west empty.
Iather than do this they have merely
increased their equipment to the
,oint where they are able to move