Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1915-04-19
The Public and
the Railroads

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laws and the men who interpret those |
laws cannot themselves define with |
any precision. Even when they en-
deavor to eXpound those laws they I
make them more obscure and more
mystifying than before. The nation
is filled with political economists.
Business is filled to safety with eco
nomic theories. When men ask for
work they are handed an epigram.
But the sad fact is that the more po-
litical theories are proposed the
poorer become the people. The bait
ing Of the transportation companies
and the harrying of business have
reached point where all business is
frightened so badly that the people
who have savings to invest are con-
fused and confounded, particularly in
quiring whether it is safe to put their
money into transportation public util-
tiles or into anything else that is
subject to public regulation. Nor is
this altered by' the fact that it is in
a measure unfair to the regulative
theory, because regulation to be use
full must not stop at the critical but
must proceed to the constructive. 1t
is designed first to regulate, but last
ly to conserve. If it fail to conserve
it has fallen short of its high pur-
pose. In the meantime this hesitat-
| ing and timid and inquiring spirit
which has taken hold Of the public
in this atmosphere of attack has put
check upon enterprise and stifled
development.
Heavy Burdens on Transportation.
Although the public interest in
transportation is that it should be ef-
ficient and adequate and helpful, the
plain fact is that a condition exists
in which almost every burden has
been put upon the transportation
companies that ingenuity can devise.
Their expenses are increased directly
and indirectly by legislation and reg
ulatve methods while by the same
means their revenues are depleted
and their credit put in jeopardy.
This is not in the public interest.
1t arises largely from experiment of
undertaking on the one hand to con-
troll private capital as if it were pub
| lie money, and on the other hand it
arises as to expenditures from the
notion that we can regulate ourselves
into prosperity by increasing the
number of jobs, increasing the cost of
doing any and every piece of work,
and deliberately reducing efficiency.
There is an old saw about saving at
the spigot and wasting at the bung-
hole. The transportation companies
are il the position of waste at both,
because they are permitted to control
neither. 1t reminds us of the boy
who to fit his purpose whitfield the
stick at both ends, but at each end
the whiting was a misfit, and in
trying to improve the job he found
that his efforts ut both ends whitfield
away the stick until there was not
enough left to he useful for any pur-
pose.
That the business interests of this
; country live in an atmosphere of at
/ tack is the more remarkable in that
t this is essentially a business nation.
= Yet in the uncertainties of the time,
( amounting almost to CONSERVATION,
business has lost it's power and initia-
t tive. The development of the trans
( portatior systems of this country and
D the development of its magnificent
Y business generally furnished an exam.
t pie to the world of the supreme force
D of initiative. 1t has been heralded
e throughout the world as the Ameri.
A can go-ahead spirit. This American
initiative has its origin and vigorous
t development before any government
: commissions or regulative bodies
e were devised.
3. Retarding Development.
E That great development was under
= conditions which caused all men o.
business to exercise their utmost mi
tiative and ingenuity and put upor
t transportation companies the initia
=. tive and incentive to meet the wants
Of business in every practicable way
$ in order that their own business
$ might develop. 1t was responsive t
4 self-interest on every side, and II
S proportion as we can develop Ameri
can initiative and the American go
l ahead spirit which is in obedience t
self-interest, in the same PROPORTION
4, will prosperity ensue and business
grow. Let us not forget that yer!
t important part in the growth and ex
: pansion of the general business of the
: nation was to be found in the growth
and expansion OF its transportation
a facilities. If the growth of the trans
n portation facilities of this countr!
t were now proceeding in like relation