The morning journal-courier., 1908-05-25
Monday. May %, 1908.
ACTION AGAINST THE RAILROAD.

ACTION AGAINST THE RAILROAD.
The doings of a day or two have
revealed a greater number of friends
and interests kindly disposed toward
the. New Haven system than Mr. Mel
len and his associates at the yellow
building have probably ever thought
they had in their widest flights of inn
agination.
No matter what grievances the
'hol polloi" may think It has against
the system, because of the quality Of
the service or the heartless actions II
a monster corporation, there seems TO
be little doubt at this juncture that
the action brought by the department
of justice in the United States cir
cult court is uncalled for. Judging
solely from the assertions and argu-
ments of the petition filed. Lawyers.
editors, and public men are agreed
that the charges are not only inoppor-
tune, coming as they do when the
country Is only Just recovering from
a period of depression and, with an
important presidential election Just
ahead, is anticipating still more UNI
settled conditions but their validity Is
seriously called into question upon
number of scores. 1t is said that
the action can never be carried 10 a
successful conclusion from a govern
mental standpoint and that while it Is
pending, it will simply tend to arbi-
trarily unsettle New Haven road Sc
curities when there are any number
Of other railroad systems about the
country, against which much stronger
cases could be brought under the pro-
visions of the Sherman antitrust
law, which itself is far from being an
ideal law, having been seriously
brought into question within the week
by the National Association IF Manu-
facturers, which claimed that il does
more harm than good in many ways.
1t Is a relief to learn that after all,
the stories circulated in the prcss 10
the effect that the president was adj
verse to any action against the road
and that Secretary Bonaparte threat
ened to resign from the cabinet un-
less allowed to proceed as he saw fit.
were IA mere invention" 1t is now
said that the press bureaus were sim
ply asked to hold up" the story UNI
til the cabinet should discuss whether,
In its opinion, the recent action Of
the courts of Massachusetts against
the New Haven system would make
any difference in the course of pro-
cedure by the government 1t Is
"de-lightful' to know that the presl-
dent and the secretary are In perfect
accord in the matter. But then again,
IL that Is the case, how can the chief
executive justify himself with his
avowed close friend, Mr., Mellen,
whose opinions he has thought so
much of that he has quoted them ut
length in recent message to con-
gress and whom he has repeatedly
assured time and again that no action
of the present character would be
brought against his system? II was
said that the most surprised man In
The country last Friday morning vas
Vice President Byrnes, but surely Mr..
Nellen himself could not have ex-
pected the governmental action less.
The petition is u novel one as com
pared with all others In that the
question of whether railroad and troll
ley holdings can be classed as natur-
ally competitive lines Is first brought
up for legal decision under the pro-
visions of the Sherman act That
this class of holdings with the New
Haven system is not competitive Is
the opinion of many prominent law
yers, even Of some in the depart
ment of justice The public that the
trolley lines cater to is not the pub
lie that the railroad lines cater to.
And, more than that, the trolley lines
OF the New Haven system are al
most without exception, not inter
state roads 1T may be freely admit
ted that the governments case
against the system would be a much
stronger one. were the steamboat
holdings urged as an evidence OF a
restraint of trade They are In a far
wider sense competitive with the rail-