Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1907-08-02
OFFICIAL PAPER OF COUNT,
Mr.. Bryan's Retreat. J"

Europe, Mr.. Bryan said:
II have already reached the conclus-
ion that railroads partake so much of
the nature of monopoly that they
must ULTIMATELY become pubic prop
erty or to be managed by public offic-
ials in the interests of the whole COM
munity, in accordance with the we'll
defined theory that public ownership is
necessary where competition is impos-
sible. do not kno,o that the country IS
ready for t.is change. I do not kno,c
that a majority Of my o,on party favor 1t,
but believe that an increasing num-
Der of the members of all parties see
in public ownership the sure remedy for
determinations between persons and
for extortionate rates for the carrying
of freight and passengers.
The other day, eleven months after
the foregoing declaration, Mr.. Bryan
said:
"Goue,7ament o,oners7,ip is not an I'M
mediate ISSUE. A large majority of the
people still hope for effective regula-
ton. While they so hope they will not
consider government ownership. While
many democrats believe, and Mr.. Bry-
an is one of them, that public owner
ship of railroads is the ultimate solu-
ton of the problem, still those who
believe that the public will finally in
self-defense be driven to ownership
recognize that regulation must be tried
under the most favorable circumstances
before the masses will be ready to try
a more radical remedy.
Regulation cannot be sufficiently
tried within the next year. There is no
desire any,uhere to make government oaoa-
ership an issue n, 1905"
This utterance, the New York World
says, marks Mr.. Bryan's retreat. /"
Does it? In his Madison Square Gar
den address he advocated government
ownership of trunk lines and state
ownership of local lines as the s'atlti-
mate ISOLATION" of the railroad problem.
Ultimate means final. Other means
control by the state and federal gov
eminent must fail before the ultimate
solution should be employed. Mr.. Bryan
declared in favor of giving government
control thorough trial. He himself
had no faith that control would sue
coed. There were those who thought
it would and others whe believed that
the country should not adopt the policy
until control was proven failure. He
did not know that the majority of his
party favored it. He was not disposed
to force it upon his party. 1t was for
the party to say whether it wanted to
advocate government ownership now
as the solution.
Ten months among the people and
Mr.. Bryan has concluded that "a large
majority of the people still hope for
effective legislation" Consequently.
government ownership is not and will
not be an issue in the next presidential
campaign. But has Mr.. Bryan's faith
faith in it been shaken? Has he re-
canted? Wherein, but in the mind of
the editor of the World is there retreat?
Where is the student of any'political,
social or economic problem whose con-
clusion of the ultimate remedy is
not ahead of public thought? The ex-
PLANTATION is in the unfamiliarity of the
masses with the nature of the problem,
that or absent faith in the remedy it.
self.
This newspaper shares the opinion of
Mr.. Bryan that control will fail. It has
the experience of the railroad commits
sion of Iowa to guide it. What is the
record of twenty years control in Iowa?
The personnel of the commission has
been determined by the railroads. Its
rulings have been made with the ap-
proval of the railroads attorneys.
Rates haze not been reduced IN t,oenty
gears. Rich in raw products, Iowa is
comparatively state without manu-
features. Interstate rates have. been
80 adjusted as to ruin its chances as
market center. 1t has been the sub
Ject of vicious discrimination and
through their control of the majority
party the railroads of the state have
named congressman, selected district
and federal judges, dominated the ex-
ecutive commission which fixes railroad
taxes, made governors it's pawns and
settled choice of United States senator.
Talk not to Iowans who know anything
of their railroad commission of the eff
fectiveness of control! Appeal from
the word of journalistic champi-
ion of Bryan and the policies of Bryan
to the testimony of republican Cover
nor Cummins, named originally as a
railroad candidate, but who broke the
bonds. Talk to the most dispasionate
citizen and ask him if the railroads
have not split the republican party in
Iowa in an effort to retain control of
the machinery of government. No
more conspicuous example of the fail
ure of control could be cited than
Iowa's railroad commission which
even the great upheaval of the last few
years has not availed to wrench from
the railroads.
Government ownership is the ulti-
mate solution to be employed as last
recourse when the American people
have come to the conclusion that what
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