Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-02-26
CAPITAL CHAT.
Interest Of the Railroads
In Legislation.
Senator LaFoI|ette's Amend
ment 10 the AIdrich Bill.
WeII.known Maine People Visit.
ing In Washington.

Washington, ID. c., Feb. 25.-(Spe-
cial.) -Great are the railroads. Greater
still are Roosevelt and LaFollette.
Just at present it may be worth while
to remember especially LaFollette. For
few days WASHINGTON has been feel
ing again as though it We're a camp
of railroad interests and antagonists,
just as it was for many merry weeks
two years ago when Congress brooded
over rate bill.
Railroad men are coming in here
daily and they certainly are lot of
sore heads. The President struck out
at them anew the other day when he
addressed letter to the Interstate
Commerce Commission to prepare
data about railroad operation and the
conduct of railroad financiering pro-
jects, as against a possible strike Of
employees. Like many Roosevelt
output it came as bolt out of the
blue and took everybody by surprise.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
came right back, as a matter of fact.
1t said it had all the information the
President was likely to want on those
subjects. Under the rate law there is
a provision for monthly accounting by
railroads and this system is so thor
ough that it furnished about all the
President or anybody else would need
to know as to whether a railroad had
been and is being operated economi-
cally and whether there is cause for its
reducing its wage scale.
The President intended his letter
should act as q preventative of strikes,
which the Commissioner OF Immigra-
ton, MIR. Sergeant, an old labor union
mar, and others have been telling him
were coming. They have also been
telling him that the clash would be
something greater than it was in 1893
when Eugene DebS got into prison, be-
cause the railroad employees are now
better organized than they were then
and can hold out longer. The railroad
Presidents who have been hurrying
down to Washington on this and other
questions, are grumbling at what Pres
ident Roosevelt has done to them i'll
the time of their adversely. but the
opinion is that he has made it more
difficult than ever for the railroads to
cut down wages.
And also in this time of their adver-
sity Senator Robert NJ. LaFollette en-
ters upon the scene. He makes the
President and all Congress take notice.
The Aldrich currency bill was getting
along nicely in the Senate. To be sure
the Senate has been on the point sew
eral days of falling asleep so dull was
the debate on the measure. 1t has
clause permitting the bonds Of rail-
roads to be used as a basis for emer-
gency currency.
Tho great west, now tremendous
factor in National legislation, has been
grumbling about that clause, the wis
dom of which even some of the great
Senate leaders doubted. The Western
Republicans insisted that the eastern
bondholders would profit chiefly from
this provision. 1t would accentuate
tire value of their securities. The rail-
roads. however, would like to see the
provision become a law. They are
feeling the hard times more than any
other corporations. Traffic is falling
off. Freight and passenger receipts
are at very low figures. 1t is next to
impossible to get money for construc-
ton work. The outlook for these prop
critics and the hundreds Of thousands
of their employees is rother dismal.
The giving of their bonds a little
CONTINUED on Page Tenn