The Washington herald., 1914-03-31
A Badly 0vsrworked Commission.

wisdom OF regulating the operation oi
the railroad companies by means of an
Interstate Commerce Commission, every
body is agreed as to the necessity for
promptness in the judgments of the
commission upon questions submitted to
it for action. This is called for. alike
by the interests of the general public.
the shippers who, use the railway lines,
the stockholders of the railway COM
panies-most of them people of small
means-and by the railroads, whose
credit and ability to secure funds for
the proper maintenance of their proper
ties are being ruined by delay. If six
months are required for the commission
to inform itself and draw its conclu-
sions regarding the justice of such pc
tition as that now involved in the re-
quest of the Eastern railway companies
for an advance in freight rates, some
thing is radically wrong.
The meritorious idea in the establish
ment o. the Interstate Commerce Com
mission was that speedy relief should be
granted to any and all petitioners at its
bar with just ground of complaint. A
great business in any community, from
which the majority of people there de-
rive their livelihood-we will SAYS
being crushed out of existence by ex-
tortionate freight rates. Must the
process continue until the
business is irreparably ruined before the
Interstate Commerce Commission acts?
Take the other side of the picture A
railroad company which serves 4 large
area of territory and whose prosperity
is absolutely necessary to the business
of every person living in that
territory. is finding itself crushed be-
tween the upper and lower millstones of
increased overhead charges and unproft-
able rates for the transportation of
freight Must the railroad company
wait until semi-bankruptcy intervenes
before the Interstate Commerce Com
mission is enabled to succor it?
We cannot altogether blame the In
erstate Commerce Commission for the
lelay in deciding the great freight rate
:ase now before the tribunal. The re-
possibility for this delay rests rather
lpon the Congress of the United States,
which has loaded upon the shoulders of
he commission more work than it can
perform. Within recent years. it has
,cen the custom of Congress, and par
icularly the present Congress. to bur-
len the calendar of the commission
With requests for information, peremp-
ory demands for investigations, and the
performance of a great mass of bust
less entirely undreamed of when the
commission was called into being. The
esult is that when any very important
ase arises, in which-as nova quick
ecision is vital, the commission finds
self semi-paralyzed. To-day, an era of
ailway dividend reductions is in full
wing, and if this continues for any
ength OF time, just one sequel from it
levitably follows. We beg respectfully
D venture the observation that the
Democratic party is more concerned
bout the sequel than anybody else.
The people at large will not stop to
hop logic in hunting around next No
ember for some one to hold answerable
or business prostration. Nobody whose
pinion about politics is worth ? cents.
oubts what the people will have to say
bout the matter, if, when election day
rrives, the memory of even the present
ritation and money loss has not passed
way.