The Washington herald., 1914-12-26
The Railway Rate Increase.

we have been at some pains to fzmilarize our
selves with the impression made upon public sensi-
u,ent by the Increase in railway freight races re-
Gently granted by the Interstate Commerce Com
mission. So far as we can discover, it Is wholly
favorable. Instead with the exception of the dis
sent manifested by Clifford Thorne-from whom
no one expects at any time Judgment other than
hostile to the railways, whatever be the pretext
therefor-we have not found any one, politician
result 1t is true that those who best understand
the plight in which the railways stand just now
would have been more pleased If the Interstate
Commerce Commission had granted the S per cent
increase asked for without exception or deduction
of any kind. But expressions of pleasure from
the newspapers universal; and this shows more
than anything else what decided change has
taken place in the public temper regarding the
subject. When such paper as the New York
World is found ardently espousing the cause Of
the railway companies, may be certain that
the mass of people have come to the belief that
the transportation interests of the United States
have right on their side in the battle that they
have been waging for the last two years.
are not likely to be bettered enormously in dollars
and cents by the decision of the commission. Few
people believe that the railway treasures will be
increased by anything like as much as $soooo,ooo.
The best expert judgment seems to be that the
railway companies-that is the Eastern companies,
who are, of course alone concerned in the present
matter-win profit by, perhaps, $3oooo,ooo even
supposing that they may also increase their reve-
nue. by taking advantage of the various suggestions
and so-called Substitute propositions made by
the commission in its report las: July. The real
be1eht to the railways is the perception by the
commission that the railways are deeply, broadly
and fundamentally in need of increased revenue
and that this increase should be accomplished by
a horizontal elevation of freight rates.
1t is true that the members of the commission,
and pretty nearly everybody, even Mr.. Brandeis,
have all along admitted the variability of the
need of larger railroad revenue; but they have
previously admitted this in a vague tentative and
altogether unsatisfactory way. They have asked
the railways to obtain such increased revenue by
meager, fnical and meticulous processes that
prove barren of results in actual practice. There
is now the iat-footed, common sense realization
that the way for the railroads to get money in this
emergency is by substantial raise in rates, and
what is more important that such substantial raise
can only be accomplished by horizontal increase
in rates and not by an occasional increase here
and there We trust and believe that all this will
stand as basis of further action of the same sort
later on.
Yet, at the same time we must again confess
our honest belief that the experiment of regulating
the railways by means of orders from an Inter
state Commerce Commission has wandered far
from its original basis, and that it must be con-
Quoted in future different lines than it has been
in the past if it is either going to work out ad-
vsntageousy to the country or to be other than
troublesome to any political administration that
happens to be in power The first chairman of the
Interstate Commerce Commission was Mr. Aldace
F. Walker; and early in the period of his ineum-
bency of that Office he pointed out the dangers
that would confront the commission in the future.
He said: Some regulation of interstate COM
merce by national law is necessary. But expert
ence has demonstrated that such regulation should
not be too minute in its detail; that it should not
undertake to do too much; that it should firmly
assert certain fundamental principles, and at the
time should fairly recognize the rights of
the railway corporations which represent the capi
tai and the brains that have made Cur present in
dnstrial conditions possible"
There is no man who has studied this subject
in fact there is considerable portion of the gen.
eral public itself, that is not fully aware of
the fact that in the last few years the regulation
of the railways by the Interstate Commerce Com
mission has been too minute in its detail, and that
the commission has undertaken to do too much.
1t may very we'll be, and indeed we believe it to
be true that the responsibility for this lies at
the door of Congress than of the commission itself
Congress has loaded on to the commission more
work than any seven men accomplish with
the result that the work of the commission moves
at snairs pace. Not only the quantity of the
work has been increased, but the scope of the
work of the commission has been most improperly
enlarged. Something ought to be done, and that
soon, to bring the functions and authority of the
commission back to where they were at the primal
stage of its existence. This is the most important
lesson of the application of the Eastern railways
of the United States for an increase in railway
freight rates.