New-York tribune., 1908-01-08
INTERSTATE COMMERCE REPORT.


The report of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission is a great tribute TO the resuiau'e
power of public opinion. 1t says;
BY railway managers almost without eXcep-
ton the amended law has been accepted III
good faith, and they exhibit for the most part d
sincere and earnest disposition to CONFORM men
methods TO its requirements 1t was not 10 ~,
eypected that needed reforms could be brought
about without more less difficulty and delay.
but il is unQuestionabIy the fact that great
progress has been made and that further mn
provement is clearly assured 10 a gratifying
extent there has been readjustment OF rates ana
correction OF abuses by the carriers themselves
Methods and usages of one sort ana ahotler
which operated 10 individual advantage have
been voluntarily changed, and II Is not TOO muGh %
TO say that there is now freedom from 1oroldI
den determinations which is actual and general
TO a degree never before approached.
In other words there have been compara
lively few trials few convictions for evasiOns
of the law and few rulings of the commission
upon contested points, and yet tremendous
reform has been effected within the brief period
of fifteen months. In short a time, if the
railroad managers had not accepted the law
in good faith and had not exhibited disposl-
ton TO conform to its requirements" and If
old methods and usages that resulted in dis
elimination had not been voluntarily changed,
no such improved condition as the commission
reports could have been achieved; for the ability
of any body OF men to correct abuses case by
case through the slow and tedious process of
the law In the face of resistance is obviously
and closely limited The railroads bowed to an
aroused and enlightened public opinion, and
the old abuses that sprang up in day when
public and managers entertained different
conception of a railroads duties ana privileges
speedily disappeared.
For our part. we think the creation OF TINS
healthy public opinion, this awakening of the
national conscience, a more important result OF
recent reform laws than the ending of rebates
and other abuses at which the legislation was
aimed. Let us give this newly created ana
active public opinion a chance to assert itself,
and not push forward too inSiStenty with fur-
tber reguative legislation until it is proved TO
be necessary. All regulation is an experiment
No one knows yet quite whittier it leads. nor
how the cost of having governmental army
supervising the details of industry will compare
with the cost of overcharges. determinations
and the various exactions of unreSulated com
merce Neither does any one know the effect
of regulation upon the attitude OF capitaI
toward future enterprises. Therefore, we say
give this newly aroused public opinion, to
whose potencv the commissions report pays a
striking tribute, its chance to rectify abuses
before pressing forward to extend the domain
of regulation.
Some of the practices for whose correction
the Interstate Commerce Commission asks ad-
ditional legislation seem to us to have received
the attention of the public and TO lie already
under its ban The wholesale investment by
railroad in the securities of other lines not
properly capable of union with its system ap-
pears to the commission TO call for new pro-
bihitiye law 1t appears to us, the contrary,
TO be one of those cases which may safely be
left to corrective public opinion. The dangers
of such investments have been forcibly brought
Nv @I1a
stocks In the most conspicuous instance of
this practice it is evident that public disap-
prevail is sufficiently realized.
A lively public sentiment already exists
against inflated stock issues by railways for
speculative purposes. Popular realization OF
the evils inherent in that practice is as keen as
popular realization of the abuses in rebates
Moreover the present attitude of the states IN
respect TO the establishment Of freight and
passenger rates would probably make greatly
inflated issues unmarketabe. This, therefore
seems to be an abuse that will cure itself. With
regard to holding companies the report sug-
gests that the existing law is subject TO judicial
determination. Why, then, ask for further
legislation until the state of the present law Is
clear?
Nor can we agree with the commission in its
recommendation that it should be invested
with power TO make a comprehensive, sys-
tematic and authoritative valuation OF railway
property. We know of process by which
such valuation. however comprehensive and
systematic. could be made authoritative. In
the case Of the Consolidated Gas Company we
have had several comprehensive and systematic
valuations. The Legislature made one. The
company itself in its suit offered another. The
master in chanceTy, after hearing, announcer
a third The United States judge before whom
the case came then prescribed a fourth And
no two of these valuations agreed in detail or
in general, but. on the contrary, they were sew
orally far apart Now, the valuing of the Con
sodated Gas Company's property, with total
somewhere between $50, 100000 and $12O,000,-
OOO is a very simple matter compared to set
ting ''authoritatiyely' the value of $4,000
100000 or so of railroad property Moreover,
in no case could the opinion Of the commits
sions experts be authoritative" Whenever a
rate fixed by it was taken to the Supreme
Court on the question of constitutionality that
august body would set to work and determine
the valuation all over again according to its own
judgment