The Oskaloosa herald., 1910-08-04

government has entered, and it will
require all the Independence (which a
popular selection OF law makers can
supply all the Intelligence which gen
eral education and specific study can
contribute, and all the courage which
the highest type of patriotism can
create to carry the government to a
safe and just conclusion.
1t would be an intricate and trying
problem, even If the railway corpora.
-tions would cooperate with congress
in the effort TO enact the proper legjs-
Iatien, but tilejl icospperstion is not
to be expected. They will in the fl-
ture as they. have in tna past, resist
Feyery PROPOSAL to Increase the efficieh.
ey of the regulation and control al.
ready in our statutes. Their infiuerfee
exerted in a thousand ways and flow.
ing in thousand channels, is often.
times had TO discover, and always
hard to overcomes | realize that in
the acrimonytof the struggle which
occurs whenever further regulation
IS suggested there is danger ofrepri
sails. 1t is to be hoped, however, that
we will go calmly and deliberately
forward to the right point, undeterred
by their position, and unmoved by
prejudice or revenge.
We must do nothing that will with.
hold from these mighty factors in our
Industrial life revenues that will be
sufficient to bring them to and main
tain them at the highest standard 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.
Although the law was greatly
strengthened in 1906 under the puts
SAINT and patriotic leadership of Theo.
dore Roosevelt, the experience of four
years 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
common 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 lamenta
BILE that our national platform in 1908
made emphatic references to this
phase of the subject. The president
assumed the initiative, but unfortun
ately, as / view it, he delegated to the
attorney general the task of preparing
a bill to be laid before congress. ]
have no reason to doubt the honesty
of the attorney general, but he had
just come from a long professional
training and association which unit
ted him to deal wisely with this sub
jact, and there came from his hands
into the house and senate bill
which, if il had passed. rs Aldrich SO
emphatically declared it should pass
would have consigned the republican
party to eternal disgrace and defeat.
Another Reputation. 81.
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
agreements and the rates and charges
made under them to go into effect
without the approval of the interstate
commerce commission. "
1t proposed to allow a single Judge
to issue a temporary injunction with
out notice, restraining the interstate
commerce commission from enforcing
an order reducing rates, and took
away the right of appeal to the SUI
preme court from such an injunction
1t proposed to limit the period in
which the commission could suspend
changes in rates to sixty days, a Pc
riod which everybody knew to be al
together insufficient. ..,ts w..
1t proposed to take away from the
commission the power to establish
through rates between steam railways
and electric railways, thereby sub
jecting the latter to the arbitrary will
of the former.
1t proposed to repeal the antitrust
law with respect to the merger and
consolidation of railways, and to sub
stitute for it the unreviewable dis
erection of the commerce court exer
cised in an ex parte proceeding.
1t proposed, in effect, to validate
the existing capitalization of rail
way companies, and the regulation
With regard to the future issuance Of
tocks and bonds was attended by a
eries of executions which practical
y legalizes every known method of
disqualification.
IL proposed to create a useless and
zpensive court of commerce to do
he work which the circuit court now
loes.
am glad to be able to say that,
with the exception of the court of
ommarce, every one OF these propos4
us found their way to the graveyard
4 legislative heresy and reaction, and
here / hope they viii lie buried for
ever.