Morris tribune., 1910-10-21

of over $1,000, 100000, and loans and
discounts of nearly $1,000, 100000.
We now have a per capita circu- |
lation of nearly $35 as against $22.87
when the Mckinley administration
came into power, and the great in
crease in the production of gold has
led to the continued increase in the
coinage Of this metal.
Panama Canal.
Under the act of June %, 1902, we
purchased from the French Company,
and embarked upon the construction
of, the Panama Canal for the purpose
of securing direct water transporta-
ton for our navy and our merchant
marine from the Atlantic to the Pacf-
fic seaboard. The construction of the
canal is carried on under the direct
ion of the War Department and is
progressing at a most satisfactory and
speedy rate, and the indications are
that within less than five years this
work, the greatest of it's kind, will
be completed, thus verifying the
dream and fulfilling the hope of
centuries. The canal will not only
prove in itself, to be a great vehicle
Of commerce, but it will also be in
the very nature of the case a potent
regulator of transcontinental railroad
rates, and indirectly, to more limited
extent, of intermediate local rates.
The chief credit for this grand and
immense work belongs to the admins
trations of Presidents Roosevelt and
Taft, to the former for initiating and
to the latter for carrying on the work.
Legislation Requisite for Modern Con-
ditions.
The great and transcendent changes
and evoIutions which have taken place
in the industrial and economic life OF
our people within the last fifty years
have entailed problems Of legislation
and administration which our fore
fathers could not foresee and had new
er dreamed of. Rules and regulations
Comparatively few and simple
which in those early days proved
ample and sufficient for the protection
and welfare of the public, have in
these modern times, in the face of the
great changes that have taken place
in the scale and methods of all kinds
of business, proved insufficient and in
many instances well-nigh abortive. In
the days when commerce and manu-
featuring was carried on by individ-
uals, firms and corporations, on a
small scale and with limited capital,
there was ample room for competi-
ton and this competition gave the
consumer a fair degree of protection.
The same rule held good in those days
in the realm of transportation. While
transportation was largely confined to
water, it was not easy to build up a
monopoly or to exact unreasonable
rates. But in these modern and later
times, when few great corporations
created by State and not by Federal
laW-With enormous capital at their
command have, to a large extent, alb
sorbed and monopolized the transpOr-
tation facilities, the manufacturing in
dustries, and the commerce of the
country, and to large extent de-
stroyed competition, the conditions
have become intolerable, and the pub
lie cry out for relief and protection.
For these great corporations, in many
instances, assume to be a law unto
themselves, and insist upon immunity
from public regulation and control.
Railways and Railway Legislation.
This was especially the attitude and
assumption of the railroad companies
in the seventies and eighties. In those
days the companies were much given
to stOck-Watering, or OVer-capitaliza-
ton, from which they are not yet
free. They were also guilty of great
determinations between persons and
places. Their rates were high and in
many cases unreasonable, and gross
and unjust rebates were of frequent
occurrence. The conditions were, in
many instances, intolerable, especial
ly in the middle west, where the farm
ers, who produced the food supply of
the country, resided, and to whom it
was of the utmost importance to Sc
cure fair and reasonable rates for
their products. By reason of these
facts the farmers in these states
sneeringly called Granger states-ap-
piled, in the first instance, for re-
lief to their state legislatures and
these responded by enacting various
forms of railway rate regulation laws,
and by creating railway commissions
to enforce them. Some of these laws
were rather crude, while some were
quite substantial and effective. But
whether good, Indifferent, or bad, they
all labored under one drawback. I'm
der our dual system of government
these laws and regulations could only
cover and affect intrastate traffic, that
is, traffic beginning and ending in a
single state. But as nearly all the
products of the farm enter into inter-
state commerce, it became evident
that legislative relief must come from
Congress, to supplement state laws.
So Congress was appealed to, and it
responded by passing the act of 1887,
creating the Interstate Commerce
Commission and giving it some power
Of regulation but without the rate
making power, as construed by the
supreme court. The Interstate Com
merce Commission, as we'll as the
public, believed that the law conferred
the rate-making power, and there was
much disappointment when the court
made its decision. All the Commits
sion could do under the law was to
pronounce an existing rate unjust, and
IL it's decision was not complied with.
go into a court and try and secure
decree sustaining its order, but it could
In no manner DreScrihe future rates