The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-13

5 Washin gton, April 13-Senator Cum rnfns charged on the floor of the Sem ate today that a persistent and wide spread campaign was being conducted to arouse public sympathy for the re- quest for a five per cent. increase in freight rates on eastern railroads now pending before the interstate com merce com mission. The Senator ex- prcssd confidnce that the com mission would decide the question on it's merits but said the House was being misled by incorrect and exaggerated state ments.
 Senator CuTnmins compared the railroad situation with the Panama Canal tofls question, declaring that an advance in railroad rates of five per cent. will amount in one year to more than all, the tolls paid by all the ships that will go through the canal in 12 or 5 years and more than American coastwise ships, if they paid full tolls, would be charged in half a, century.
 SCORES PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
 Tn connection with the proceedings before the commission" he continued, there is in progress the most com prehensive energetic and persistent campaign that I have ever witnessed to make the people of the country be- Iieve thatftne effort of the go&erpment to regulate railways, railway rates and railway practices has resulted in dis nal, disastrous failure; that the gov iernment in it's ehdeavor to protect the people has i'm poverished the trans portation companies; that it has driy- en them to the very verge of bank ruptcy and ruin; that it has destroyed their credit and rendered them incap- able of performing the service which commerce demands; that it has out lawed them from the confidence of capital and exiIed them from the field of the investor.
 This extraordinarily campaign has filled the newspapers with headlines, with despatc11es, with letters and with editoriaIs It has taken possession of the magazines out of which week af7 ter week issue appeals for justice to the decadent railroads and to despon-i dent railroad nlanagers and it gives where the eIoqence of orators paints 1urid pictures of empty treasuries. Of worn out tracks, of falling bridges and diIapidated euufpment.y
 ATTEMPTED TO MISLEAD PUBLIC
 Senator Cummins quoted from several magazine and newspaper stor-' ies giving accounts of how different railroads had been forced to discharge large numbers of employees and re- trench in their expenditures.
 'sI do not assert that the campaign is being carried on to affect the com mission. %k he continued. "fer the ra4l-t road companies know that # cannot be swerved a hairs breadth from the path of its duty but I do assert that the movers of this campaign are try ing. to do an infinitely more obJectftn- able thing.
 They are trying tos nisIead and pervert the Judgment of the people. They are trying to awaken sympathy .by false pretenses. They are trying to deceive the country with exagger- ated cries of suffering and distress in order to escape the control which ex- periefee has demonstrated should ba imposed upon all corporations which undertake a public service 7
 HAVE MADE OWN RATES
 The Senator denied that the, people B Of the Unted States are hostile to. the railroads and said, that everyone desired that all railroads be well Con structed and we'll operated. He did not doubt that there were some rates , z z "a