Bisbee daily review., 1908-03-17


 dent by an official in one of the rail- road operatives unions. The contra diction of the two statements is only a single point in the general contrast that exists between two pictures of the railroad situation which have been put before the country. One conception is of the railroad tyrant. It is true that this is not the work of single artist It is a composite of a variety of sketches. photographed into a single impression updn the public mind. Awhere it is seemingly indelible. The president, in his mes sage and his speeches. his proseeu- tions in the courts and his appeals for legislation by congress. drew the original lines that represented the railroad corporation as a monopoly, a breeder of monopolies. law-treak- CT. Cartoonists and denagogues Of press and platform exaggerated those lines in the pursuit of their profes- sional duties. The courts in some in- stances have outlined dishonest rail road operations, and the exposures of .sh;rA Spanoa,, h,ya ,,ntfr,oa o. well. Out of it all there comes a conception by the mass of people of the railroad man. Individually or as type as an arch-criminal, against whom any severity of law was just railroad fighting was popular.
 The picture was not true. It was an exaggeration of faults and a com plete obIiteratlon of the good. T',e other picture which contrasts so sharply with it is more nearly traa In the first plact it is not anonymouI, but is official. It is accurate. q IS a reproduction of the railroad siula- ton, and not the composite of the mental conceptions of many indivId- uals, who may have been more or less informed as to the facts. The of- fciaI reports to the interstate co IT. merce commission, and the reports of the companies furnish the details of the sketch. In this picture the rail road does not appear as tyrant The sherman anti trust law, the Elkins anti-rebate law, the Hepbtrn rate law, the Erdman law, the various laws creating and empowering the interstate commerce commission, to- gether with a mass of regulatory leg islation in the states are sufficient to have tied a Gulliver and made him subject to the will of the little peo- pie. Nor does this picture represent the railroad man as defying the law. The official report of the interstate commerce commission says that 95 per cent of the railroads of the coun- try are furnishing the monthly re ports as to business in all the details required by law. President Trues- dale of the Delaware, Laekawanna and Western. with other railroad presidents, says that the additional required for these reports forms considerable part of the ex- pense of railroad operation. Only four large railroad systems have as yet undertaken general reduction of wages. Each one of these four has taken the first steps under the Erd man law to secure an official inquiry and to establish just basis for the reduction. The railroads are dealing amicably with the department of jus tice to secure a reasonable interpre tation of the commodity clause of the Hepbhrn law.
 The tyrant is at least obedient, and it is the testimony of. the interstate commerce guardians that the obedi- ence, for the most part, is one of will ingness to cooperate. Then let's give the roads a square deal.