The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-28
Ballard E. Dunn Addresses the
Commercial Club
On Question of Regulation of
Railroad Rates.
THERE NOW ARE 40 BOSSES
Whole Matter of Control Be-
longs to Congress.
Supreme Court Recognizes the
Power of I. C. C.

That the only way for the avoidance
of uncertainties and confusion in mat
tiers of appeals and hearings is in the
yestment of the final authority of rail-
road regulation in a single body, is
the conclusion presented before the
Commercial club by Ballard E. Dunn
of Chicago, special representative OF
the Western Association of Railroads
He spoke on the subject, TOO Many
Cooks
ut is the ancient truth that too
many cooks spoil the BROTH" Mr.
Dunn declared. THE most conspicu-
Gus application of this truth as ap-
piled to the bigger problems of today,
is found in the situation confronting
| the railroads.
Congress has assumed regulation
! of interstate commerce and the forty
eight states in the Union have each as
sumed regulation of the conduct or
railroads within the borders of their
respective states. The result is that
the railroads have forty-nine bosses,
but no supreme boss. Each boss has
his own idea of how the job should
! be handled, each his own theory for
the regulation of rates, and each his
own idea as to railroad financing, rail-
road service, railroad valuation, and
railroad equipment
ports based upon its own theories of
how reports should be made, and mil
lions of these reports are made by the
railroads each year. The reports of
state railroad commissioners contain
from $4,000 to 10000 pages each
year"
Supreme Court Rulings.
The speaker cited numerous exam
pies of railroad appeals which had
/ Tod oh RI h.
United States supreme court. Every
time, a decision was handed down rec
! ognizing the superiority of the Inter-
state Commerce commission over the
separate states utilities commissions.
THE Shreveport, La, case" he said,
| was taken originally to the Inter-
state Commerce commission, which
decided that the state rates would
have to give way to the interstate
rates, and upon appeal the ruling of
the Interstate Commerce commission
was sustained by the United States
supreme court. Until the ruling by
the United States supreme court, the
conditions which had been created by
the Texas state commission had the
effect of driving the Shreveport bust
ness houses out of competition in the
| Texas field"
Mr.. Dunn asserted that the trouble
is in the United States congress- not
having assumed the full authority to
which it is entitled. His particular
mission in delivering his speech be-
| fore Commercial clubs over the coun-
try he declared to be to arouse inter-
| est in the bodies to such an extent
that they will urge upon congress the
necessity of clarifying the system OF
railroad regulation.
The logical and sane development
is a concentration and unification OF
railroad control" the speaker said
Commerce does not recognize arti-
fetal state barriers and there is nc
sane reason why commerce should be
regulated upon the basis of state bar
riers. To a very large extent, COM
merce is dependent upon geographical
conditions, conditions of soil and eli
mate and density of population, and
the final system of regulation will nc
doubt take these considerations into
account