The Pleasantville press., 1912-10-23
Many Progressive Measures
Put in Force
THE WHOLE PEOPLE SERVED
Express Companies Compelled to Re-
duce Rates, Parcels Post Law En-
acted and Other Notable Progress
sive Policies Made Effective by
Taft Without Boosting and Noise.


the Taft administration the credit of
putting in force more measures OF
positively progressive character than
any other administration since the
civil war. Not only have such meas
ures been numerous, but they have
been of great and far-reaching impor-
tance. President Taft has labored in
defatigably to serve the whole people,
and by means of his broad experience
and rare judicial mind and having at
his command legal talen of the high
est order he has put his progressive
policies one after another into valid
and practical legislation. This has
been done without boasting and noise.
Whether yindicated or not at the COM
ing election, Mr.. Taft's work will
stand as chapter of achievement as
brilliant as it is meritorious.
We wish at this time to invite atten-
ton to two specific features of gov
ernmental progress. One consists of
the interstate commerce compission's
investigation of the express compa-
MES, resulting in the recent report or
dering the companies to reduce rates
and institute sweeping reforms in va
rious directions. The other is the en-
actment of the Bourne parcels post
bill, one of the most useful measures
ever put in force in this country under
any administration. These two re-
forms, taken in connection, will exert
fr11 fnA fr1~ m
of the cost of living.
Mr.. Taft has been in complete sym
pathy with the interstate commerce
commissions inquiry into the express
business, a process consistent in all re-
spects with the administrators gen
eral policy of compelling big corpora
tions to square themselves with the
law and the public interest. Some OF
the more powerful corporations do not
like that policy, but the public ought
to indorse it. The enactment Of par.
GELS post law brings to fruition plan
that found Endorsement in the plat
form upon which the president was
elected. Through the action of the
senate the Bourne bill, looking to
parcels service at the lowest practica
Bile rates within a given territory, was
substituted for the house bill. with its
fiat rate provisions. The measure as
passed probably is not perfect, nor
should the rates be regarded as per
manent The plan is experimental In
certain respects. But we believe the
principle of the act is correct. One OF
the most important aspects Of this
measure is its bearing on the food sit
uation. 1t will give consumers and pro
ducers new medium of direct con
tact. The interstate commerce com
missions rulings respecting the ex
press companies also make special &C
count of this problem. The express
companies are required to order their
business in such a manner as to give
quicker service and lower rates on
food products.
1t is recognized by all economic in
vestigators that one of the greatest
problems related to the cost of living
is that which has to do with the sys
tenn of distribution. Express reforms
and the parcels post will be of great
value In promoting prompter and
cheaper distribution of food products
especially, and at the same time the
scope of these measures is so compre-
hensive as to apply to all classes of
merchandise. Production, too, should
be greatly stimulated by the influence
thus invoked
We do not say that President Taft
deserves the sole credit for these de.
partures, but we cite them as features
of an administration that some persons
would have us believe is nonprogres.
sive, when in reality they form logi.
cal part of a great progressive epoch,
which opened with the Inauguration Of
Mr.. Taft, and which, In the peoples
patriotism and good sense, will be con-
tinued during four more years Of the
same courageous and able leadership.