The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-01
More Business Regulation.

Not only should there be action on certain laws affecting wage-earhers: there should also be such action on laws better to secure control over the great business concerns engaged in in- terstate commerce. and especially over the great common carriers. The h. terstate Commerce Commission should be empowered to pass upon any rate or practice on it's own initia- tive. Moreover, it should be provided that whenever the commission has reason to believe that proposed ad- vance in rate ought not to be made without investigation, it should have authority to issue an order prohibit ing the advance pending examination by the commission
 1 would not be understood as ex- pressing an opinion that any or even a majority of these advances are iin- proper. Many of the rates in this coun- try have been abnormally low. The operating expenses of our railroads, notably the wages paid railroad em- ployes, have greatly increased These and other causes may in any given case justify an advance in rates, and if so the advance should be permitted and approved. But there may be, and doubtless are, cases where this is not true; and our law should be so framed that the government, as the represent ative of the whole people, can protect the individual against unlawful exac- tion for the use of these public high ways. The Interstate Commerce Con- mission should be provided with the means to make a physical valuation of any road as to which it deems this valuation necessary. In some form the federal government should exercise supervision over the financial opera tions of our interstate railroads In no other way can justice be done be- tween the private owners of those properties and the public which pay their charges. When once an inflated capitalization has gone upon the mar ket and has become fixed in value, it's existence must be recognized As a practical matter it is then often abso- lutely necessary to take account of the thousands of innocent stockholders
 
 good faith. The usual result of such imitation is therefore to impose upon the public an unnecessary but ever lasting tax, while the innocent pur- chasers of the stock are also harmed and only a few spectators are bene- f1ted Such wrongs when once accom- plished can with difficulty be undone: hllt thpN f1 10 taJ xry;+l1 ea4 and with justice. When combinations of interstate railways must obtain government sanction; when it is no longer possible for an interstate rail- way to issue stock or bonds, save in the manner approved by the Federal I government: when that government makes sure that the proceeds of every stock and bond issue go into the im- provement of the property and not the enrichment of some individual or syn dicate; when, whenever 1t becomes material for guidance in the regula- tive action of the government, the physical value of one of these prop- critics is determined and made known l-there will be eliminated from rail- road securities that element of uncer- tainty which lends to them their spec ulative quality and which has con tributed much to the financial stress of the recent past.
 l think that the Federal government must also assume certain measure of control over the physical operation of railways in the handling of inter- state traffic. The commission now has authority to establish through routes and joint rates. In order to make this provision effective and in order to pro- mote in times of necessity the proper movement of traffic, I think it must also have authority to determine the conditions upon which cars shall be jn- terchanged between different interstate railways. It is also probable that the commission should have authority. in particular instances, to determine the schedule upon which perishable con- modities shall be moved.