The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-02-28
CHARLES A. PR0UTY,
MAN OF AFFAIRS
Some Interesting Statements About YER
monter on Interstate Commerce
Commission

Commission
No member OF the interstate commerce
commission, perhaps, has ever taken bis
work more Seriously than Charles A.
Prouty, who wrote the decision, made
public last Thursday, against the freight
rate increases proposed by the railroads
of the East. For fifteen years he has
been studying the railroad rate problem
and for nine years he has been preaching
government regulation, says the New
York World
Mr. Prouty was among the first OF the
advocates OF this principle. He began in
| 1902 to make addresses about and TO
write magazine and newspaper articles
about il. Wherever he went and into
4 whatever company he carried his argI-
ments, and since government regulation
has come, he has lived up to his beliefs,
even to the point of differing with his
! fellow commissioners, as he did last sum
mer when he voted to suspend the new
Communication rates on the roads leading
into New York from New Jersey, against
every other commissioner except one.
At the meeting OF the American Eco
homie association in Philadelphia in
1902, Mr. Prouty declared the railroad
to be the greatest and most dangerous
of ali monopolies' A few weeks later,
before the committee on interstate and
| foreign commerce of the House OF Rep.
resentatives. he carried his argument
still further In discussing the payment
Of rebates to the beef trust, he said
| then:-
"A freight rate is a tax upon every.
thing which enters into the life and
commerce of this country. You have
not a stitch OF clothes on you which has
not borne that tax You do not eat a
single thing which does not bear that
tax, unless you dig it in your own
garden"
Two years later he wrote an article
for the North American Review, in which
he said:
There is but one way to regulate
rates and that is to regulate them II
rate il found to be unreasonable, a
reasonable rate must be put in place OF
t. This method is legal as has been
affirmed BY courts without number II
is feasible Every civilized country in
the world employs it to-day except our
own Even the dominion Of Canada,
within the past year, has adopted that
system. II is Just to all parties, and no
other system is.
"An Arbitrary Tax"
Quoting statement from the auditor
OF the commission that the freight rate
advances in the four years preceding
1904 would. If applied to the movements
for the single year ending June 80
1903, amount to Sl55.000,000, Mr.. Prouty
added
This enormous sum represents in
most instances an arbitrary tax laid by
the railroads upon the public. | do not
charge that any portion Of this Is I'M
Just, but ! do insist that, in view Of
the nature OF the service which our rail-
roads render, and the circumstances un.
der which their rates are imposed, some
way should be devised by which the rea-
sonableness OF these charges can be in
vestigated by the government. This
should be done cautiously; it should be
done fairly; but it should be done. No
other phase of the trust problem com
pares with this in Importance
Following these expressions OF opinion
Mr. Proutv wrote the decision in the
Spokane case. which was along precise
" the lines Of last weeks ruling, and
was the first of the important judgments
Of the commission after its powers had
been extended to include actual reglla
ton Still following these expressions
OF opinion Mr.. Prouty was member,
with Commissioner Knapp, OF President
Taft's Claw commission which worked
out the amendments to the Sherman and
the interstate commerce laws which were
proposed year ago
Mr.. Prouty lives on the northernmost
edge of Vermont All the characteristics
of that section belong to him, for he
was born there as well-at Newport, in
1883 His home now is almost within
stones throw Of the Canadian line,
on the shores Of Lake Memphremagog,
where he lives plainly but in great com
fort
During the Civil war Mr.. Prouty at
tended district school. In 1871 he en-
tered Dartmouth, where he took his
bachelors degree four years later. He
was a brilliant student, taking every
prize that was open to him, it is said.
Astronomy became his hobby toward the
end Of his course, and on his gradua.
ton he went to pittshurg 70 join the
staff Of the Allegheny observatory under
Prof $. r Langley. later director Of
the Smithsonian institution.
Astronomer for a Year.
A year in Pittsburg, however was
enough for Mr. Prouty, and in the CEN /
tennial year he returned to Newport TO /
take up the study Of law. Between (
September and March he qualified for /
admission 20 the bar although Il was
not until lsS2 that he actually took his 1
examinations IN the meantime he taught
history IN the Balston Latin school and