The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1909-03-06
TAF I LAYS PLANS
TO EMF ORCE LAWS
Wickersham and Nagel AL
ready Fixing Interstate
Commerce Duties.
Continued from First Page9

or evidence and complaints, have re-
suited in some instances in confusion.
and especially In a needless amount OF
repetition Of work on the part Of some
Of the bureaus. The Taft plan would
do away with this. and would put into
operation a smoothly working system
Of receiving complaints, or investigating
them, and of securing proper legal &C
ton on them.
II has been said for a long time. even
by friends OF the Interstate Commerce
Commission, that that body had too
much work to do, and that it's manifold
duties resulted IN great delays IN the
This is one thing to which the new
President especially objects He be
ieves that everything possible should be
done 10 expedite the administration of
justice. especially where the Govern
ment is intrusted with il.
Affects Railroads.
This change means, Of course. that
the railroads viii be under the Depart
ment Of Commerce and Labor in so far
as the investigation Of complaints and
the collection of evidence is concerned.
The only duty of the Interstate Com
merce Commission viii be to pass on
the justice Of the cases as presented TO
It and to issue orders in accordance
with their decisions. II the orders are
not Obeyed, the new bureau IN the De
partment Of Justice will institute the
necessary prosecutions in the courts
That there Will be opposition to the
plan In Congress Is the talk In Wash
ington. Especially has this report been
made concerning the attitude OF certain
members Of the House. This, however,
will not lessen the determination Of the
President to do everything in his power
70 int 10
From now until late next autumn he
and his Cabinet will devote much study
10 the corporation question in general
and his message to Congress next De-
cember VIII contain, among other
things, q complete outline of this
scheme Of having the Government exer-
else it's control of all interstate cor
pOrations.
To Work Out Details.
During The spring and summer Mr..
WickersEam and Mr.. NageI viii work
out all the details OF Il, and their con
SITUATIONS with Mr.. Tart viii find final
expression in the message TO Congress
and In the proposed legislation.
All the opposition, as so far deveI-
oped. viii come from those who believe
that the Interstate Commerce Commits
SION should not be molested, although It
is admittedly overworked, and COM
plants have repeatedly come from in
diYsduals that the disposition Of cases
before it has been found to be a very
tedious thing But the President and
his Cabinet are hopeful that, when the
merits Of the proposition are fully ex-
planned, the needed legislation Will be
forthcoming.
n the general policy toward the cor
pCratiOnS, the companion piece Of this
reOrge ntZat1on OF the Government S
dealing with offenses, viii be the leGis-
iation needed to give the right for The
combination of capital and plants IN
der certain conditions
What these recommendations viii be
has pot yet b=en determined. but the
study Of the corporation question VIII
result in theIr being framed I'D in
definite shape by next fail.