New-York tribune., 1910-07-25
HSTRGENT FICTION.

representations of certain insurgent SEN
ators in discussing the railroad rate bill
enacted at the last session of Congress.
It is quite possible that, because Of the
technicality of the subject, a consider
able number of persons may be deceived,
but to what good end? Are not those in
surgentS doing violence to the progressive
Republicanism which they claim To rep
resent when they take a position and
make representations which imply that
their cause can survive only by attack
ing the leaders of the party, and even by
misrepresenting those men? Senator
CumminS is the latest offender in this
| respect. He says:
regret to say that the Attorney Cen
eral forgot that he was the attorney for
ninety million people. But he remem-
| bered his long law practice in New York,
| u hen his chief business was to tell the
corporations how to evade the law. This
! bill provided for the repeal of the anti
! trust law. under which the traffic asso-
| Citations were broken up. and allowed all
agreements TO go into effect at once, and
then the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion should investigate the rates while
the charges were being made. This was
a plain reputation Of the Republican
platform
This statement of the Iowa Senator
is in part disingenuouS and in part
untrue. The course of the Senate in
surgents resulted in an Improvement of
the administration rate law in that it
gave the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion power to suspend rates for con-
Sidera BILE period pending investigation of
/ their reasonabeness. The insurgents, on
! the other hand were responsible for the
loss of two important provisions-onc
| legalizins traffic agreements when made
with the approval Of the Interstate Com
merce Commission, and the other pro-
viding for federal supervision of rail
road securities. It is the first of these
to which Mr.. Cummns refers when he
SAYS that the Wickersham bill would
have repealed the Sherman antitrust
law as applied IN railroads. His state
ment is a partial truth wholly mislead-
ing in effect.
President Roosevelt was the first pub
lie advocate of q law authorizing traffic
agreements. Does any one suspect him
OF catering to the railroads? Can he be
charged with advocating the provision
| because Of experience as q New York
| LAWYER? The provision in the admins
| tration bill would not have repealed the
/ Sherman law as applied to railroads, but
would have substituted a new and more
! appropriate statute for the control of
| traffic agreements one far more easy OF
| enforcement because drawn with the Spe-
cific purpose of controlling this phase of
| railroad business In advocating such a
provision. and in sending TO Congress 4
measure containing it, President Taft
was clearly seeking to .'clinch" a Roose-
! welt policy. and a wise one, and in fling
ing loose charges about .'repealing the
antitrust law Mr.. Cummins is simply
| seeking to take advantage of his audi
tors and to magnify his own services
hy means of deception. Mr.. Roosevelt
! sought the repeal of the antitrust law
! in this respect quite as earnestly as Mr.
| WickerSham or Mr. Taft although il
would not serve Mr.. CumminS S purpose
To state that fact
Those familiar with the inner workings
of the great banks and the important
part played by the manipulation of secu-
rites, especially railroad securities. can
not but sympathize with the Presidents 3
! effort 10 bring railroad stocks and bonds
/ under federal control, nor fail to regret
the demagogy of those insurgents who
| temporarily defeated the proposition.
! Fortunately. however. a commission has
! been created TO consider the subject. from
which good results may he expected
If the Senate insurgents would confine
| their claims TO credit 10 the provision
! they secured i'll the bill authorizing the
/ Interstate Commerce Commission to sus-
pend rates pending the investigation of
! their TeaSona beneSS. no one would seek
| 10 minimize their achievement But even
| that does not constitute any serious re-
! fiection on the Attorney General or the
administration bill No important and
| complicated measure ever attained per
! fection in its first draft Few do in their
! final draft. All important legislation is
/ the product of many minds, of eX-
tended consideration and debate, Il proc
esS which. where the legislators are sin
cere. results in many improvements The
original interstate commerce act of 1887
| was SO far from perfect that the railway
te bill of 1906 was needed to perfect it.
! That act President Roosevelt signed with
| the utmost qualification, and Vet the rate
! law Of the last session was needed to
/ supply ifs Deficiencies. And there is
| every reason TO believe that still more
! legislation Will be required to perfect this
great body Of law. These are facts known
of all men. and yet because Mr.. Cum
minis and his associates found n method
/ of improving the original draft of the
/ latest Law. they seek TO impugn the mo-
! tives and reflect on the character of
! those who prepared the first draft
! Misrepresentation and deception never
have gone far in promoting a good cause,
/ and the sooner progressive Republicans
abandon the Cummins form of stump
ora tory the better il will be for the cause
they assume 10 represent
COLLECTIF L4BOR Contracts.
The French government has proposed
an experiment in industrial legislation