The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-03-09
JAMESON MAKES
STRONG SPEECH.

From our special Washington cor
respondent, Clyde H. Tavenner, we
have received the following account
of very strong speech delivered by
CONGRESSMAN w. D. Jameson before
the Interstate and foreign commerce
committee, in which he declared for
physical valuation of railroads and
against raising rates:
Declaring that the people want
the railroads to make very liberal
rate of interest on money actually
invested, and to pay their employees
the best of good wages, but that the
people object to being forced to pay
interest on watered stock, Repre-
sentative w. D. Jameson, of Shen-
andoah, Iowa, made an exceptionally
creditable argument for the physi-
cal valuation Of railroads before the
| interstate and foreign commerce
committee.
Jameson who is the only demo-
crat from Iowa in the present Con-
gress, exhibited very clever under
standing of the subject, and was lis
tened to very closely by the men,
bers of the committee. But it is
obvious there will be no physical
valuation measure passed at this ses-
sion. The railroads dominate this
important committee without a
shadow of doubt.
In their endeavors to prevent a
physical valuation, the railroads
throughout the country are endeav-
oring to work on the fears of their
employees, as capital invariably
does with labor. The railroads pre-
tend that physical valuation means
lower salaries. AS a matter of fact,
the type of man who agitates ply
steal valuation is a type that be-
lieves in a square deal for railroad
employees just as he does in a
square deal for the public. jamie
son, as LaFollette and Brandeis have
repeatedly done, made plea for the
rights of the railroad employees
that was little less than eloquent.
The people of Iowa do not want
J the railroads to steal our money IN
der the guise of necessary advance
in rates every couple of months,
declared Jameson. "although we
want these railroads to make fair
and reasonable profit under proper
conditions one year after another.
We also want them to pay their en-
plOyees the best of good wages. These
employees are among the most COM
petent and most Industrious as a
class of any set of employees in the
world. They are charged with heavy
responsibilities; those in the opera
ting end of the work are subjected
to tremendous hazards; they have
no regular hours, but perform work
when many of the balance of us
are sleeping; they get in late and
start out early; they have no regu-
lar home life and but little real COM
fort in their actual work, and as a
rule they are very efficient and devo-
ted to their work. We don't object
to paying enough freight and pas
senger charges to enable the railroads
to give these very deserving helpers
the highest wages, but we don't want
our money stolen from us by having
the railroads force us to pay inter-
est on millions upon millions of dol
lars that are not invested
Jameson pointed out that the
Supreme court had held that the
basis of all calculations as to the
reasonableness of freight rate
must be the fair valuation" of the
property used in the convenience Of
the public it will be impossible for
the interstate commerce commission
to determine rate upon that basis,
declared Jameson, until physical
valuation is taken by the govern
ment and the commission knows
what the actual valuation Of the
railroad properties is. Until the
physical valuation is taken the fixing
of a "reasonable'' rate must remain
sheer guessWork.