The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-29
TIMES ARE BETTER
COMMISSIONER LANE OPTIMISTIC
 OF THE FUTURE.
The Railroads are Gradually Recover ing from the Panic--Good Work
 of the Interstate Conn merce Commission.

Washington. June 2s--'Returns from the railroads generally show that those roads not dependent upon coal, steel and lumber industries. have been doing very well recently" said Commissioner Lane of the Interstate Commerce Com
 mission today.
 'of course they have not done so we'll as last year. Generally they have de- cided not to make any reductions either in wages or in rates of freight affecting the next three months. which is an indication that they believe busi- ness will keep up.
 9Th ere are some curious things about prevailing conditions" continued Mir. Lane. 'for. instance. the Lehigh Valley. the other day gave us a report on net earnings for the first five months of the present calendar year, together with similar reports covering the pre- | ceding i've years, and the showing this years was larger than that of any other year during the period indicated. With ] the opening the the steel mills at Pits ! burg and of the car shops. more men ! will be employed, and there will be a ! larger demand for material as well as labor than has prevailed for some time
 'rhe opinion of railroad men is that we have passed through the worst of
  on, we will gradually recover from the effects of the panic. The prospect for l large crops in the West is extremely good. Railroad men do not expect l normal conditions to be recovered sud- | denly, but look for steady improvement. In my opinion this improvement will
 be much more rapid than some of the
 lugubrious prophets have been telling | us, because fundamentally there Is i nothing in the United States either to
 create or continue to a panicl
 The railroads must spend money in | maintaining the roadbed and equipmel1 n ] of their lines in order to meet the de- | mands of commerce., because they are ] most seriously embarrassed when they are not able to handle business offered l them and theer Is no doubt that tn ere | is an abundance of money in the United 1 States which can be secured for legiti- mate railroad investment. This was
 shown by the floating of the Pennsyl- | vania bond issue,
 "In this connection think people | ought, to understand that the Inter state Commerce Commission has been of valuable service to the railroads dur | ing the past six months. because 1t has 1 prevented a rate war between the roads | and has maintained rates. I predict | that the railroads tn hemselves will come l to bless the railway rate law by means
 of which the roads have been able to
 protect themselves at a time wheI | their nerves were wobbly. If we had
 six or seven years ago such: as.tinan-
 cial disturbance as took place last oe'
 tober, the railroads. upon finding th al | their earnings were falling off. woult
 have gone Into the business of rate
 cutting and possibly a larger numbei
 of receiverships would have resulted
 The railway rate act is admitted by
 candid railread men themselves to have
 been of inestimahle value. The en forcement of the law against relating
 and our tenacious purpose to stop dis | crinnination, has held them up to 1
 conformity to the law that is withou nrecedent :"