The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-25

the several commissions will be restless
ana 1ncessant. There will be no occa-
sions or excuses for pienics. The work
Wlll be serious and a fitting supple
ment to the completed legislative per-
formance in other things True, there
nave been no tests to entirely prove the
efficiency of the new tariff law. the
currency law or the surprise party
income tax law, but they are on the
books, and being tried out Until the
tests have been made. conscientious
objection will be organized against am
bit1ous new measures. That will mean
indefinite delay. and possibly defeat In
Congress over many propositions count
ed as being of grave Importance to
the public-and to candidates for re-
election from 100 or more districts
The present open situation is one of po-
ignant interest to business, to Wall
street and to Washington, as we'll
Even if Congress should not cover it
self with glory before the next election
it can have a lot of fun and build up
a mountain of excitement among the
candidates and the people over mooted
questions.
Rate Decision to Come
Now that the commerce commission
has given notice to the obstructionists Is
who are obviously trying to blockade
action on the application for a 5-cent
ihlSe III TallTOdu ITelSnI rates, lHal the
evidence must be in by March s, a
great sigh of relief goes up from the
railroad people whose patience had
been strained by a tire1ess demand for
more information and argument. Not
that any one of the So railroad pres
idents has any particular objection to
supply every iota of additional facts
that may be wanted. but they had al
ready spent the best part of a year
and fully s1.0o0,000 to obtain data asked
for by the commission, and felt they
had done good job.
Under the suggestions of q persistent
special attorney SO more questions were
ADDED to the list. The railroad men
kept decorously under control, although
they may have felt they were being i'm
posed on. All the railroad representa-
tives, excepting a chosen committee OF
selected wise men," went into an
other season of silence. The chosen
few laid before the commission a bud
get of fresh information. such as could
be compiled on short notice. The fore
cast of an eternity of time for further
investigation into a question they were
already fairly well informed upon
changed the official front, and it was
charitably resolved to shorten the tor
ture to two or three months instead of
years. AS the case now stands it look S
as though, whatever rate decision may
De, 1t Will De pOSSlDle IOT the SIat1S-
teal and bookkeeping railroad experts
to open up new sets of books for the
next fiscal year beginning July !, next.
Furthermore, great issue will be set
tied, no matter what the finding be.
he railroads will know definitely
where they are at a phrase fire.
uently used in connection with ad-
publications.
New York's signal success that char
acterized the sale of $51,000,000 AN per
cent bonds of the state of New York
went long way to strengthen the
credit of the commonwealth and to re-
establish confidence. 1t has become
strkingly evident that the hysterical
and falsely inspired semi-panic has
faded away. The change in the tone
of the situation during the last three
weeks has been phenomenal. Bankers,
brokers and merchants are in continual
receipt of encouraging letters and tele-
grams 1t would appear from the
weight of testimony that the turn in
the temper of affairs has coma to stay.
Many Gamblers Now Poor
One result of protracted "overplay"
was a protracted reduction in the VOL
ume of business on the big exchanges