The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-07-01
FEDERAL OWNERSHIP MAY
SOLVE RAILWAY PROBLEM

Lev uS nope that LHluKerS VINO
favor better transportation system
will not refuse to consider the speech
of Daniel Willard before the Amer
lean Newspaper Publishers associa-
ton because he happens to be presi-
dent of the Baltimore & Ohio rail-
road, or because he may have spoken
in the past against what seems to be
the interests of the public as distin-
guished from those Of the railways.
He said in that speech that the
regulation of the railways should be
taken from the forty EIGHT state rail-
way commissions and entrusted to
the federal government.
I once asked the greatest state rail-
way commissioner in the United
States, according to. my estimate, how
long, in his opinion, the present sys-
tenn of commissions can last before it
definitely breaks down.
THE whole railway commission
SYSTEM" said he, 'is now breaking
down. There are forty-eight state
merce Commission.
Each state commission is striving
to get the best deal it can for the in
terests it represents. If it is honest
and represents the people, it tries to
get the best of the railways and the
people of other states for the benefit
of. it's own state. If it represents the
railroads, as some state commissions
still do, it tries to fool it's own people
and make things as smooth as pos
sible for the railways. IN either case,
the public interests suffer. State. lines
have little to do with railway prob
lens.
What sense is there in letting ILL.,
pois or Iowa NEEDLE with the enor-
nous streams Of traffic which flow
through those states or from them to
other states, or vice versa? The same
thing is true of almost every state.
THE more able and honest state
commission is, the better deal it
makes for it's own people. There are
states which have had such able COM
missions that they have made. rates
and conditions which are unfair to
other states. If one state gets the
best Of it, some other state or states
must pay the railways for the loss,
since the railways have TO be oper-
ated."
" nat Is the T0ulcuy dShCu.
abolish the state commission,
said he, Including the one to which
1 belong. Give the Interstate Com
merce Commission power to establish
rates both interstate and intrastate.
Give it also the power to control the
service-all the powers the state COM
missions now have and more if neces-
sary. Let the Interstate Commerce
Commission run the railways, in
short Add to the numbers of the
commission enough commissioners so
they may be divided into groups, and
may regulate the railways in groups
and trade basins instead of by states.
If that is done, the railway commits
sion system may be kept from break
ing down for long time. Unless it
is done it's breakdown is certain be-
fore many years."
Mr.. Willard would not admit that
he is for this full program, perhaps.
but his speech shows that he is for
most of it.
If so. I believe he is right-unless
we are ready to do the other thing of
which my friend, the state railway
commissioner, spoke.
IF this concentration Of power in
the Interstate Commerce Commission
is not effected, and the state commits
sion abolished" I asked, land the
commission system breaks down,
what will take its placer"
"Government ownership" he. re-
piled.
If I were called upon to predict, I
should say that the state commissions
will hang on, the system will break
down, and that we shall have govern
ment ownership that before
many years.
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