Arizona republican., 1910-06-09
PHoENIX, ARIZONA. JUNE 9. 1910
Mir. Taft's Solution.


 |. the railroad presidents, reached in the conference at the White House on Monday and Tuesday, should be satisfactory to everybody. Inciden- tally, it had a quickly reassuring eff feet on business; orders for many millions of railway equipment which ton suit was filed, have been rein stated, and the financial sky has cleared
 The agreement reached with MT. Taft provides for the withdrawal of the injunction suit, and withdrawal by the railways of all proposed in creases of rates until the new rail- road law bcomes effective. and after that to submit the reasonableness of the increases to the interstate com merce commission.
 The president adopted a wise course. It is more than doubtful whther the temporary injunction, Ob- tained without hearing, could have been made permanent upon a hear ing The sole ground for the injunc- ton was the agreement of the rail- ways to advance rates in violation of the Sherman antitrust law. There can be no doubt that the president resorted to the extraordinary remedy of an injunction with doubt, both as to its efficacy and as to the justice of trying to apply the antitrust law to railway agreements as to rates. His messages to congress have clearly presented his views on that subject. He thinks the railways ought to be permitted by law to make rate agree ments. subject to the approval of the interstate commerce commission. All intelligent shippers take the same view as the president. They do not wish a return of the days of rate cutting and discrimination. The in telligent shipper wants to be assured that his competitor in business gets no lower freight rates than he gets. In order to assure uniformity of rates it is absolutely necessary that the railways be permitted by law to do the thing which sound business prin- ciples require them to do-to agree among themselves as to what the rates shall be.
 But the intelligent shipper also in- sists. as the president insists. and as all progressive railway managers ad- init, that a fair regulation of rate making by the government is neces- sary for the protection of the public the carriers must not be permitted to increase rates every time their share holders complain about earnings.
 NIT. Taft's adjustment of the late difficulty puts it up to the interstate commerce commission to decide whether the proposed increases are reasonable. and this is a settlement which will have the approval of the fair-mnded people of the country.
 The proposed increases would not affect our section of the country di- rectly. and the people of the south west are therefore in a better posi- ton to consider the proposition ju- dicially than they might be otherwise The greatest of all industries in the country is the railroad business. It amounts to more than two billions of dollars annually. By far the greatest item of expense in operation is for wages-amounting to considerably more than a billion year Increases of wages already made this year amount to one hundred millions an nually. Everything in the way of equipment and supplies is going up in price! it is becoming more and more expensive to operate railways. On the other hand, freight and pas senger rates in the east and middle west have been reduced from time to time The net result is that rail- way managers are confronted now by the problem which occasionally con- fronts every manager of business institution-the problem of making the income pay the expenses and fair profit on the investment. On account of the vast amount of money paid out by railroads for wages and for sup plies and equipment. there is scarcely a business establishment in the whole l country that is not affected directly by railroad business. It is obvious that if the greatest of all industries does not prosper. the country cannot be prosperous.