Evening journal., 1915-01-04
Is Railroad Regulation Becoming
SFranuuIaiiOn?
BY Ivy Lee Assan Penn Company

ing in Washington an Interstate
Commerce Commissioner called at
tention, as to an omission requiring
repair, to the fact that railway ma
terial is in general notable for its
exemption from all supervision of
any kind-State or Federal"
There is pending in Congress a law
limiting the number Of freight cars
which may be hauled with one loco
motive. At the meeting of Commits
sioners in Washington, committee
recommended that the Interstate
Commerce Commission be given full
authority to prescribe "the character
Of equipment to be used i'm interstate
commerce, also authority to prescribe
the manner of using or hauling
same
And the most amazing feature Of
this whole process is that actual eX-
perionce in the successful conduct
Of railroad affairs apparently dis
qualities q man from appointment to
a railroad commission.
In 1913 nearly 400 laws regulating
railroads we're introduced in az State
legislatures In 1914 only IA legis-
latures we're in session. but 236 new
railway bills were proposed OF
these, 112 provided for some manda-
tory concessions to employees.
Arbitration commissions establish
the rates Of wages which shall be
paid to employees. but assume no re-
sponsibility for obtaining the money
with which TO pay them.
Local authorities assess railway
taxes. but these authorities have no
power to help the railroads assess
charges out Of which to pay these
taxes. On the Pennsylvania Rail-
road in the past fourteen years total
wage payments increased 160 per
cent. and taxes increased over 200
per cent
Perhaps expenditure for all these
purposes is desirable, but It is GER
tain that il cannot he made unless
the railroads receive higher charges
! for the services they rcnder-and
the railroad company Is concerned
only that returns as a whole shall be
adequate.
Nevertheless. a non political Con-
| gressional Committee reports that
the railroads arc underpaid for car
rying the mails. but Congress takes
no steps to provide the additional
money
Many States arbitrarily limit both
freight and passenger rates. But
even where that is not done higher
rates can only be obtained with the
sanction of railway commissions.
Thus hemmed in between Scylla
/ and Charybdis, the railroads have
run aground on a long-charted and
J well-known rock known as the arith-
metic table In concrete form this
is how the danger has manifested
] itself.
During the four years from June
30. 1910. To June 60 1914. the thirty
/ five railroad systems cast Of the
Mississippi and north Of the Ohio
River expended for improvements
nearly $500. 100000 Yet. such was
| the increased expense Of handling
business that in the fiscal year 1914
these railroads earned net operating
income less by s9O.000,O00 than in
1910. before that cash investment had
been made.
Must it not be apparent that had
/ investors in the past realized the
/ treatment they were 10 receive. they
would not have provided the money
for the building and development Of
our railroads?
And as the money for future rail-
road development must be supplied
| by private capital. is it not time that
we took some thought for the NOR
row?