New Britain herald., 1914-07-21
ASSA|L
 INTERSTATE BOARD
HtW Haven ''huenaklng," They
 Claim, Shields Men Accused.

New Ydrk, July 21.-Charges were made in the July IS market letter of Middendorf. Williams,& Co.,, which made it's appearance in the financial district yesterday, that the delay in rendering the decision in the rail- rpad freight ease has demonstrated the incapacity. of the members of the Z Interstate Commerce Commission and . 10000 word undertaking report on the New Haven had saved from punishm ent men it had charged with crime.''
 Interest," in the scathing attack was deepened because R. Lancaster Will Hams of the Stock Exchange firm mentioned is a brother of John skel- ton Williams, Comptroller of the cur rency.
 The market letter, which bears the heading Business interests aroused by dillydally policy of the I. c. G." eoes on to say that the business and Financial interests of the country are Becoming impatient over the long de- lay on the part of the commission sn rendering a decision in the rail- road freight rate case and that they ire insistent that the commission act ats once. Charges Saving of Offenders. The Interstate Commerce Commis- sion, the letter adds, handed down n decision a few days ago in regard to steel rates in the Birmingham dis tfict, q relatively unimportant matter which had been pending before the commission for two years, but that the railroad freight rate increase, flor which the country has so long been waiting, has been before the Er6mmission in some form or other since 1910. The letter then says
 TThe connmission cannot justify it's action on the ground that the ques-' tfon to be decided Is so complex that the most careful consideration must be giVkpssto it, for it yhas been be- fore the body in one form-.oE another for nearly four years, surely suffi- cient time, to haves thrashed out every phase Of 1t.
 Approves Cry of Incompetency.
 sIn the circumstances we do not wonder that the cry has gone up that with possibly two exceptions the competent to perform the duties en- 5 trusted to theHl. There is not practical raiiroad man on the com mission, and vet this body is charged with deciding a asquestion which means so much to the material interests of the country
 Here is what E. c. Simmons pres fdent of the Simmons Hardware com pany of St. Louis and one of the larg- est shippers in the country thinks of the course of the Interstate Com nnerce Commission, an opinion which Is shared by leading business men aeverywhere:
 The greatest danger now con- fronting the country is the dishon- est and shameful treatment given tho railroads. Public opinion, unfairly made, has caused the robbery of the railroads for eight years.
 Would Dust Commissioners. < i.ss1 If were president of the United States with power over congress- and there have been such presidents NI would legislate the present Inter state Commerce Commission out of existence, and two weeks afterward would enact another law creating g new commission, and I would see that fair men, unafraid of muck rakers, demagogues and socialists, Thereafter regulated the freight rates of our railroads. say this, although I am shipper and pay out large sums to our transportation com panies.'