East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-08-03
EIGHT PAGES.

the highest type of patriotism can
create to carry the government to a
safe and just conclusion.
It would be an intricate and trying
problem, even If the railroad corpor-
atons would cooperate with congress
in the effort to enact the proper leg
islation. but their cooperation is not
to be expected. They will, in the fu-
ture as they have in the past, resist
every proposal to increase the effi-
cheney Of the regulation and control
already in our statutes Their influ-
ence exerted in a thousand ways and
flowing in a thousand channels, Is
oftentime hard to discover, aud al
| ways hard to overcome. l realize that
in the acrimony of the struggle which
| occurs whenever further regulation Is
suggested there is danger of reprisals.
1t is to be hoped, however, that we
will go calmly and deliberately for
ward to the right point, undeterred by
their position, and unmoved by pre-
judice or revenge.
We must do nothing that will with
hold from these mighty factors in
|
be sufficient to bring them to and
maintain them at the highest stand
ard of efficiency, and that will reward
the capital invested in them fairly and
reasonably: but we must not forget
that it is the business of the govern
ment to see that they exact unjust
toll from no man; that they practice
no discrimination, and that there is
neither favor nor disfavor in the SER
vice which they render TO the several
communities which make up our COM
mercial union.
Altogether the law was greatly
strengthened in 1906 under the puis-
SAINT and patriotic leadership of Theo-
dore Roosevelt, the experience of four
yars demonstrated that the power of
the interstate commerce commission
should be materially enlarged, and we
of the west at any rate, felt that there
should be some restriction upon COM
mon carrier corporations engaged in
Interstate traffic with respect to the
issuance of stocks and bonds.
The history OF the previous decade
in this respect had been so lament
able that our national platform in
1905 made emphatic references to this
phase of the subject The president
} assumed the initiative, but unforsu-
: nately. as I view IT, he delegated to
} the attorney general the task of pre-
pairing a bill to be laid before con-
gress. | have no reason to doubt the
honesty of the attorney general, but
, he had just come from a long profess
sional training and association which
untitled him to deal wisely with this
subject, and there came from his
hands into the house and senate a bill
which, if it had passed, as Aldrich so
, emphatically declared it should pass.
would have consigned the republican
, party to eternal disgrace and defeat.
, Another liquidation.
= Contrary to our solemn promise in
the platform it proposed to repeal the
antitrust law with respect to traffic
; agreements among railways specifying
rates and charges and to permit such
r agreements and the rates and charges
= made under them to go into effect
e without the approval OF the Interstate
e commerce commission.
4 1t proposed to allow a single Judge
= to issue temporary injunction with
out notice, restraining the Interstate
t commerce commission from enforcing
n an order reducing rates, and took
= away the right of appeal to the SUI
g preme court from such an injunction.
1t proposed to limit the period in
e which the commission could suspend
changes in rates 70 sixty days a Pc
g riod which everybody knew to be al
t together insufficient.
n 1t proposed to take away from the
n commission the power to establish
= through rates between steam railways
and electric railways. thereby sub
e jecting the latter to the arbitrary will
u of the former.
y It proposed to repeal the antitrust
= law with respect In the merger and
k consolidation Of railways, and to sub
= stitute for it the unreviewable discre-
e tion of the commerce court exercised
in an ex parte proceeding.
e 1t proposed. in effect. to validate
: the existing capitalization Of railway
d companies, and the regulation with
d regard to the future issuance If stocks
/ and bonds was attended by series Of
s. exceptions which practically legalizes
Il every known method of overcapital-
ization
4 1t proposed to create a useless and
: expensive court of commerce to do
/ the work which the circuit court now
l. does
e 1 am glad to be able to say that,
l. with the exception of the court of
II commerce every one of these propos-
lie ais found their way to the graveyard
IS of legislative heresy and reaction, and
y Continued on Page Three)
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