Arizona republican., 1910-01-04
VIII be Divided by President
 Taft Into Three Parts HE HEARD OBJECTIONS
Of Railroad Presidents to His Recommendations For Amendments to the Interstate Com m cree Law.

! Washington, D. C., Jan. 3.-Follow- ! ing a forenoon conference with rail-
 road presidents. President Taft late | this afternoon announced a change of
 program in sending a message dealing
 with the interstate commerce and anti
 trust law amendments. to congress.
 The message will be split in two parts. The section dealing with the trusts will ! be sent to congress on Thursday noon.
 The section dealing with interstate
 commerce in which the railroads are directly interested will be deferred un- | til Friday. special message on the
 conservation of the national resources is expected to be ready for congress
 next Monday.
 i It was said late this afternoon that
 the message would probably receive greater attention if it were divided | into two parts, neither of more thtn
 4000 words. As a result of the call of
 the railroad presidents it was said that
 only a few verbal changes would be
 made in the message and that these
 would make the presidents position
 more clear.
 Mir Taft found the railroad men ! most VI nlit
 the idea of any legislation at all. now.
 when they declared. conditions in the railroad and industrial world are fighting themselves after two years of | depression, they did not seek to deter
 the president from sending the mes
 sage They devoted themselves to more
 or less specific objections to the bill
 prepared by Attorney General Wick
 ersham. which forms the text of the
 message The president. it is declared will not attempt to force the Wicker ! sham or any other bill upon congress He will say in his message that such | a bill has been drafted and is at the disposal of congress.
 The railroad presidents admitted
 that their objections to the proposed
 amendments to the interstate com
 merce act were general in their appli- cation to all amendments The pres l ident, however, made his position clear { to J. P. Morgan in a brief interview
 on Friday morning. Mir. Morgan in | turn arranged today's conference and i advised the railroad men to confine themselves to suggestions of changes | in the amendments rather than to at | tempt to influence the presidents gen | eral course. MT. Taft let it be known | that he would not only make recom- | mendations for changes in the law. but
 that he expects congress to adopt his
 suggestions at this session and thus
 carry out the promises of the republi- can platform.
 Those who attended the conference | today were Presidents McCrea. of the Pennsylvania; Lovett, of the Hartman lines; Brown, of the New York Gen. | tral; Mellen, of the New Haven: Baer, of the Reading and Finley of the Southern. They brought Louis Cass Ledyard, of New York with them as general council. Attorney General Wickersham represented the legal de- partment of the government
 One of the changes which Mr. Taft agreed to make in his recommenda- tions has to do away with the language of the propose amend
 ment prohibiting a railroad com pany from acquiring stock in
 any competing railroad in the fu-
 ture and from holding stock in a com peting railroad after a given date. It is claimed that the wording of this
 proposed amendment is such that 1t
 might be held to apply to lines like
 the New York Central, and the West
 Shore. The latter for many years has
 been a New York Central line serving virtually as an overflow of the track age system on the western shore of the Hudson.
 The law, as Mir. Taft will suggest, will provide that where railroads own fifty per cent or more of the stock of another road it may acquire the remainder. This it is said will afford measure of protection to the minor ity stockholders, for if railroads. own ing a majority of the stock should be
 prohibited from acquiring any more of
 the minority it would lose the only probable purchaser. Where a rail- | road holds less than a majority of the stock of another line however, it will be provided that it can acquire no more. Nothing in the interstate com
 mere law amendments will be drawn
 as to legalize the holding of stock in | competing road when it results in the violation of the antitrust law. MT Taft listended to railroad officials for more than two hours. He had been informed in advance and had talk
 en for granted the many objections they
 would make and he practically in | formed them that while their views | would be given every consideration in | the final wording of his messags, he