Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-01-08
Mr.. Pennington on Conditions
Says Increase Of Rates Is Necessary for Improvements and
Prosperity This Year

In its issue Of Tuesday, December 1G.
the Minneapolis Journal, published an in
terview with President Pennington of
the 500 Line regarding the proposed in.
crease Of rates. which proposition Is now
up before the interstate commerce com
mission, and wherein he claims such in
crease is necessary in order to make the
improvements desired, and which viii
necessarily lead to prosperity. Following
is the Journals article and interview:
The railroads of the United States,
Including the great system centered in
Minneapolis, will close a year of ccono-
mical management Dec. 81, and will
open 1914 with such extensive CONSERVE.
ton plans held in allegiance and such
large, equipment orders pending that in
the event they conclude to 80 ahead with
them. Astounding prosperity will mark the
year to come, in which Minneapolis ter
ritory will share in great degree. In (;
statement that. for its detached view OF
what has heretofore been, talked Of as q
railroad problem, is one of the most re
markable that ever cmanatcd from tho
head 0, IA great transportation system.
President Edmund Pennington of the
Soc Line today %reIagatcd to the back
ground the tariff, the pending currency
measure and other factors, and said that
in the hands of seven men in Wash
ington rests the decision whether the
territory tributary to Minneapolis. and
likewise the country as a whole, she'll do
so much business in 1914 us shall measur-
ably pass, in every division of CONNER,
cial and industrial activity. the year 1913
Power in Commerce Board.
The interstate commerce commission,
as the result of the changing from ag-
gression to a passive attitude on the
part of the railroads that is now going
on, has been raised to a position of i'm
portance relative to prosperity of the
country, that its creators never dreamed
Of. Mr.. Pennington said. While the
country's statesmen and economists are
at work analyZing Legislative act or pro-
posed legislation, or considering the
effect Of the tariff or the currency bill.
powerful influence upon the country's
welfare that outweighs every other fac
tor, has become%lodged, he said, in the
!: hands: Of the commission.
two years the railroads have beer
asking for a rate advance" Mr.. Penning-
ton said. For two years men of prom.
'Stpenco in the railroad world. armed with
staJstics showing the mounting cost OF
railroadSS operation, the decreasing revc-
nue. n thssinsistcnt public demand .fol
greater SERVICES have been Knocking al
the commissions door. 1T may seem
strange that.it sheuf0stemain for Mime
apolis to discern the Change of ~attitute
of the transportation industfy,y as a
whole, from insistcncc to .what a now
amounts almost to Indifference.
Let Public and Board Fight H.
Yet 1t is the case that, east and west
the labor Of convincing the. commissio,
that the public can only get what il
wants If the. railroads. can find the none,
to give II. has been practically abandon.
ed. The conflissiUn now has in its hand,
the proposition for an advance in rate
and has habit along. time. 1t is held UP
What the decision finally will be no on,
can predicts But this is true--the rail.
roads are stepping aside, and the public
which is demanding the improvements
n extensions and terminal enlarge.
ments n other things and the com
mission, which can make it possible 70,
the public e get these things can, fight
1T out. MI,
"The railroads have quit. They have
struck or are about to strike. 1t is VI
to the public and the commission. Either
the commission must recognize that, as
conditions are II as they have been fol
several years past, the railroads canno,
80 on charging terminals and extending
mileage without opportunity to earn more
money, or the public. to be consistent
must not blame the roads when the
next great period Of activity comes OF
Il the facilities are not there to handle
the business. @ .H.. " !