The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-12-01
Railroad Problem

Are the railroads of the United
States to remain a private ownership
or pass into public ownership?
If they remain private ownership,
what is to be the character and scope
of public control?
Is the divided authority Of State
and Federal Government to be re-
tanned, or is the Federal Government
alone to exercise the power Of regu-
lation?
These are some of the questions that
confront the Newlands Committee
whose investigation began in Washing
ton yesterday and is likely to prove
the most important industrial inquiry
ever held in the United States.
There is no great railroad system
that has cars enough to carry the
freight that is offered to it, or loco
motives enough to haul the cars or
Sufficient terminal facilities to take
care of the traffic. Conditions are
growing worse every day. Freight
congestion is more serious, the indus
trial Reorganization due to transpor-
tation disorganization is more wide
spread, and railroad managers are I'M
able to cope with the situation. How
has it come about?
Railroad presidents and railroad
bankers insist that the railroads have
been regulated to death; that their
earnings have been so restricted and
their expenses so increased by State
and National authority that they can
no longer perform their functions as
common carriers. There may be a
measure of truth in this, but the fact
remains that the railroads are earning
more money than they ever earned be-
fore, that their net profits are greater
than ever, and that the breakdown of
traffic has come at the highest point
of railroad prosperity.
The obvious reply to the railroad ex-
cuses is that every railroad now in the
hands of a receiver is the victim not
of regulation but of crooked finance,
and that railroad credit has been de-
stroyed not by State and National
regulation, but by scandals.
Advocates of Government owner
ship declare that this is proof of the
complete futility of private owner
ship and public regulation, and that
all the facilities of interstate trans
portation and communication must
pass into the hands of the United
States Government to be operated by
the United States Government. This
. reasoning is imperfect because
thorough regulation has not been tried
The theory of unrestricted private
operation long ago collapsed under the
abuses of the system. Railroad own
ership and operation would be the first
step toward political revolution in
the United States. Thus far regula-
ton has not proved successful, but
there has been no real regulation, and
that is the thing to which the country
must come. 1t can come only through
the agency of the national Govern
ment, which alone has power to reg
ulate intestate commerce.
The exercise of that power means
national control without State inter-
ference Of all railroads engaged in in.
terstate commerce. 1t means nation
al regulation of railroad rates, ma
tional regulation of railroad capitali-
cation, national regulation of rail
road service, and when necessary ma
tional regulation of railroad wages.
Let us first try regulation at its
best before concluding that regulation
is failure and undertaking an exper-
Fiment which would be risky under our
political conditions.-St. Louis Post
Dispatch.