Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1908-08-05

railway employees and indeed, may de l prive them of their places entirely. | From what has been said the propel conclusion would seem to he that ir attempting Co determine whether tn, entire scncdulc of rates of a railway i, excessive, the physical valuation of the road is relevant and important but not necessarily a controlling factor Physical vaiuasion Properly Used Will
 Not Generally Impair Securities. | ! am confident that the fixing of rates on the principles suggested above would not materially impair the pres ent market values of railway securities m most cases for l believe that tho normal increase in value of railway properties especially in their terminals will more than make up for the possible over'caPitalization in earlier years. In some cases doubtless it will be found that overcapitalization is made an excuse for excessive rates, and tha, they should be reduced, but the con census of opinion seems to be that the railroad rates generally in this country are reasonably low. This is why doubtless the complaints filed with | the Interstate Commerce Commission against excessive rates are so few as compared with those against unlawful discrimination in rates between ship. pers and between places. Of course in the determination of the question whether this discrimination is unlawful or not, the physical valuation of the whole road is of little weight.
 Conclusion That There Had Been Physical Valuation.
 l have discussed this with some de. gree of detail merely to point out that the valuation of the Interstate Com. rnercc Commission of the tangible prop. erty of railroad is proper and may from time to time be necessary in settling certain of the issues which may come before them, and that no evil, or injustice can come from valu- ation in such cases, if it be understood that the result is to be used for a just purpose and the right to a fair profit under all the circumstances of the in vestmcnt is recognized.
 The Interstate Commerce Commission has now the power Co ascertain the value of the physical railroad property if necessary determining the reason ableness of rates. If the machinery for doing SO is not adequate, as is prob. able, it should be made SO. The Repub. lican platform recommends legislation forbidding the issue in the future of in. terstate railway stocks and bonds without federal authority, if it may DC. eur in such cases that the full value of the railroad is an element thereof the value of the tangible property of the railway should be relevant and i'm. portant factor in assisting the proper authority to determine whether the stocks and bonds to he issued were to have proper security behind them, and in such cases therefore, there should be right and machinery to make n valua. ton of the physical property.
 National Control of Interstate
 Commerce Corporations.
 Another suggestion in respect to sub. ordinate and ancillary machinery nee. essary to carry out Republican policies is that of the incorporation under na. tional law, or the licensing by national license, or enforced registry of com. panies engaged in interstate trade. The fact is that nearly all corporations do. ing commercial business are engaged in interstate commerce., and if they all were required to take out . federal license of n federal charter, the bur. den upon the Interstate Commerce busi- ness of the country would be int6ler. able.
 Should Be Limited to Small Percentage
 By Classification.
 it is necessary. therefore, to devise some means for classifying and insur. ing federal supervision of sucn corpor- ations as have the power and tempta- ton to effect restraints of interstate trade and monopolies. Such corpora. tions constitute n very small percent. age of all engaged in interstate busi- ness.
 MT. Roosevelt's Proposed Classification
 With such classification in view. Mir. Roosevelt recommended an amendment to the antitrust law known as the Hep burn bill. which provided for voluntary classification and created n strong mo tive therefore, by granting immunity from prosecutions for reasonable re- straints of interstate trade to all cor porations which would register and submit themselves to the publicity regulations of the Department of Com. mcrcc and Labor.
 The Democratic Proposed
 Classification.
 The Democratic platform suggests a requirement that corporations in inter state trade having control of twenty five per cent of the products in which they deal shall take a federal license. This classification would probably in clude great many small corporations engaged in the manufacture of special articles or comodities whose total value is so inconsiderable that they are not really within the purview of real evil of the antitrust law. lt is not neees. sary, however, to discuss the relative merits of such proposition, but it is enough merely to affirm the necessity for some method by which greater exc cutive supervision can be given to the