The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-10-30
ATTITUDE OF INTERSTATE
COMMERCE COMMISSION,

New York Journal of Commerce.:
w actions on the part of the inter
state commission within
the past few days have aroused con-
siderable comment. One is the selec-
ton of Louis d. Brandeis to repre-
sent the government in the pending
cases involving advanced rates on the
railways; the other is the designation
of Judge Prouty, now a member of
the commission, as the head of the
physical valuation work ordered by
congress. The claim is made that
neither step should have been taken,
and that in making the appointments
the commission has laid itself open to
attack.
The reason for complaining of the
action regarding Mr.. Brandeis Is his
former appearance on behalf of the
eastern shippers at the time of the
advanced rate cases of three years ago
when he did more than perhaps any
other man to prevent the advances
from icing allowed; while Mr.. Prouty
is believed by many. to have been dis
tinctly ~anti-railroad in his past de-
ciS1onS in rate cases. On the strength
OF these ideas 1t is assumed that bias
will be shown in the presentation of
the new cases and in the preparation
Of data on physical valuation Of the
operating properties. There may be
a warrant for both of these views,
and even If there were not, it would
have been better to make some other
selections, lnasmuch as both the men
referred to have at all events taken a
very distinct view of the railroad
question in the past and have shown
themselves to be possessed of one
SIDED views on the transportation is
sue. This is, in no necessary sense,
a dlscredit to either, out is a, good
reason why in work where scientific
ana dispassionate effort is required
other choices should have been made.
BY starting free of suggestions that
there has been bias or p~artisanship in
any branch of the undertaking, the
commission will be far more likely to
command public confidence and will
gain greater support ever from those
VINO believe in a severe policy toward
the railroads than would be possible if
there were reasonable basis for COM
plant of its attitude.
There Is a broader aspect Of this
matter than is conveyed by the mere
facts regarding the two appointments
now spoken of. For a good while the
interstate commission has,
with more or less warrant, been re-
garded with doubt by all who are con-
cerned for the success of American
railways. There was a period when
the public at large considered the
commission a defender of public
rights and ar institution to be sus-
tanned. The railroad policy of Presi-
dent Roosevelt which bore so strong
ly the Strengthening of the commits
sion had a wide and general approval
from the country as a whole, and the
subsequent enlargement of the COM
missions powers under President Taft
was likewise approved. On the
strength OF these Endorsements, the
opinion has undoubtedly prevailed in
Washington that the public as a whole
believed in what was being done in
regulating the railways, n would
sustain further reduction of their
powers and privileges. Advances in
rates have consequently been denied
and cases have been decided against
the roads when there was good rea-
son for action Of an opposite sort. The
attitude thus taken Is not political"
in the ordinary sense Of. the term,
since the present line of action was
mapped out before the present party
became dominant, but it Is political
in the sense of being an appeal on the
part of a government body to a pre-
JUDGE in the community against large
property and it's owners. ~
Neither the average man who has
no property, but whose spirit of fair
ness is violated by prejudice in high
places, nor the small saver whose
earnings are menaced, will approve of
placing rate Investigations or valua-
tons Of railroads In hands that are
likely to deal with the issues on a
basis Of prejudice. The interstate
commerce commission runs a serious
hazard of losing it's prestige and fall
ing into public disfavor If it continues
too far along present lines. That
would be a misfortune from many
standpoints.