The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1914-04-13
CLJlNWLNS. OPPOSES
INCREA Sc OF RATES
Declares There is a Widespread
Campaign to Arouse Public
Sympathy in Matter.
tnY AsseerArEp eREss,

WASHINGTON April 13.-Sena6oE
Cunu1ins charged on the floor of the
senate today that a persistent and
widespread campaign was being con-
Quoted to arouse public sympathy for
the request for Ave per cent increase
in freight rates on eastern railroads.
now pending before the Interstate
Commerce Commission. The senator
expressed confidence that the commits
sion would decide the questions on It's
merits, but said the public was being
rnisled by incorrect and exaggerated
statements.
Senator Cummins compared the rail
road situation with the Panama canal
tolls question, declaring that an adj
vance in railroad rates of five per cent
will amount in one year to more than
all the tolls paid by all the ships that
viii go through the canal in twelve or
fifteen years and more than American
coastwise ships IL they paid full tolls,
would be charged in half a century.
In connection with the proceedings
before the commission" he contin-
ned there Is in progress the most
com prehensive, energetic and persts-
tent campaign that I have ever Wit
messed to make the people Of the
country believe that the effort OF the
government to regulate railways, rail-
way rates and railway practices has re-
suited in dismal, disastrous failure;
that the government in its endeavor
to protect the people has impoverished
the transportation companies; that II
has driven them to the verge of bank
ruptcy and ruin; that it has destroyed
their credit and rendered them IN
BILE of performing the service
which commerce demands; that It has
outlawed them from the confidence OF
faH
of the investor.
This extraordinary campaign has
filled the newspapers with headlines,
with dispatches. with letters and with
editorials. 1t has taken possession of
the magazines out of which week at
ter week issue appeals for Justice 70
the decadent railroads and to despon-
dent railroad managers, and 1t gives
dinners and holds public banquets
where the eloqueuce of orators paint
lurid pictures of empty treasures, OF
WORKOUT tracks, of falling bridges and
diIapidated equipments"
senator cummins quoted from sew
eraI magazines and newspaper stories
giving accounts of how different rail
roads had been. forced to discharge
large numbers of employees and re
trench in their expenditures.
Il do not assert that the campaign
is being carried on to AFFECT the COM
mission he continued, for the rail-
road companies know that it cannot be
swerved a hairs breadth from the path
Of its duty, but I do assert that the
movers of this campaign are trying to
do an infinitely more objectionable
thing. They are trying 10 mislead and
pervert the judgment of the, people.
They are trying to awaken sympathy
by false pretenses. They are trying
to deceive the country with exaggerat=
ed cries of suffering and distress In
order to escape the control which ex-
perience has demonstrated should pc
irnnosedt upon ali corporations which
undertake public service"
The senator denied that the people
of the United States are hostile to the
railroads and said that every one de-
sired that all railroads be well COM
structed and well operated: He did
not doubt that there were some rates
which should pe Increased.
senator Cunmins recalled that sub