The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-06-02
should be worked out on a scientific

LAC
We can never have permanent
prosperity in this country until we
have solved this question. We must
make it possible for railroad securi-
ties to be sold on reasonable terms
for the interest of all business. The
best of our railroads are operating
on reduced capacity and rundown
equipment. They are unab'. 10
keep up the equipment they have on
account of the uncertainties of the
present system of public harass-
ment.
Adequate freight rates should be
allowed the railroads that they may
be able to sell their securities to adj
vantage and be able to keep the pro-
per equipment for the ready dis
patch of business. Transportation
is the key to business prosperity.
Senator Underwood suggested as
a means of solving this far-reaching
problem the appointment of a COM
mission to investigate the transport
tation situation, so as to get at the
facts that would be a basis for intel
ligent action. Senator Underwood
is exactly right in the statements as
to existing conditions which he has
made with such statesmanlike
breadth of view. But the Manu-
facturers Record believes that; Mad
he fully weighed all the factors con-
tributing to existing conditions he
would have been slow to advocatS
anything like another commission as
a possible aid to a restoration of the
normal. Investigations by commits
missions or committees in the past
decade, abused as they have been and
as they are now being abused by men
given temporary notoriety as men,
hers of them, and revealing incom-
potency for any task save that of at
tempting to turn a seeking for facts
into personal or partisan propagan-
da, have nevertheless brought about
an accumulation of facts having Off
cial standing sufficient in volume and
character to guide any intelligent
member of the Congress in perform
ing his duty to the country by work.
ing out the problem in a non-parti-
san way, as Senator Underwood be-
lieves it should be worked out. There
are commissions already in action
and the State bureaus charged spe-
officially with the gathering ofall the
facts bearing upon thes object. 1t
is believed that Senator Underwood
is we'll equipped to handle those facts
to the proper solution of the problem
and that the only education needed
in the premises is the emphasizing,
for the benefit of the voters who send
men to Congress and other legisla-
tive bodies, that transportation is the
key to business prosperity, that mon
ey is not something to be picked off
the curbstone or out of the air, that
ever if capital can be thus easily ac-
quired, no possessor of capital can
be compelled, short of forcible con-
fscation, to invest his money in a
losing proposition. One of the
weakest points in Senator Under
woods address is the following:
The commission, if appointed,
should continue it's labors until after
the next Presidential campaign, so
that the issues would not become in
volved. 1t should remain in session
for one year or eighteen months.
This suggestion was intended to
further the idea of non-partisanship
in handling the question. But the
question is not a party one in being
monopolized n way or another by
any of the great political parties of
the country. None of them has
clean skirts in this particular. 1t is
for the people of the country, with
out regard to party affiliations, to let
representatives of all parties under
stand that they cannot continue to
harass deliberately the agencies es-
sential to the progress and prosperity
of the country or to make even hon
est mistakes in dealing with the ques-
ton. Facts abound for the safe
guidance of honesty and intelligence