The Washington times., 1917-12-30

state Commerce began yesterday its
investigation Of the present and fu-
ture of the country, as decided by
railroad management. Chairman
Henry C. Hall, Of the Interstate Com
merce Commission, was on the stand
all day. He will continue on it until
he has impaired to the committee all
. it needs Of his extensive knowledge
Of railroads.
The emergency situation was To-
cussed by Chairman Hall at the
great gateways." As all roads lead
to these gateways. their. terminal ia
cilities decide whether business
moves or merely "gluts." :
As the present condition is one Of
Cutting, Chairman Hall defined the
remedy through unifcation and CO.
ordination as very simple in theory.
Say that there are fifteen great lines
leading to the gateway and then out
by water, as he illustrated a gateway
on the coast! Then If three Of the
railroad lines glut, the diversion of
freight over the other twelve relieves
the glut.
II terminal facilities are short,
then such docks, warehouses, and
tracks as the Government builds at
its own expense will remain Govern
ment property after the war. Mr..
Hall does not understand that they
will be covered by railroad bonds now
outstanding. He considered all in
vestments made by the Government
as strictly public-not for the ben
eft of railroad sufferers, however
meritorious.
A point he developed has about the
same relation to business, to politics,
to political history, and TO popula-
ton that the angle Of the earth's pole
has to the seasons.
It is of changing freight move
ment from a general East-West and
West-East course to North-South and
Northeast = Southwest. Diverting
freight from New York, and other
glutted North Atlantic ports to South
Atlantic and Gulf ports is expected
to be an important factor in reliev-
ing glut. This is for the emergency
only. If permanent, the great north
east Atlantic ports would lose their
supremacy.
In summing I'D the relations of
Presidential control of railroads to
the antitrust laws, Chairman Hall
said that exercising emergency war
powers. conferred by Congress, did
not involve setting aside other laws.
AS a whole, the railroads had done
well. The President would do better
with complete unifcation, using all
railroads as one co-ordinated sys-
tenn.
Mr.. L. A. Snead, distributor for the
fuel administration, told the Senate
Committee on Manufactures Of plans
for supplying Washington with coal
enough for the winter. He gave much
additional light on the relations Of
official prices to the difficulty of get
ting coal at any price. The informa-
ton was chiefly economic. He told
Senator Jones, however, that at Off
cial prices, decided by averaging in
different fields, some coal miners
might lose money while others were
making increased profits. This is the
logic of the law Of averages. Six is
the average between two and ten.
The man who has been making ten
dollars loses four on the average of
six. The two-dollar man gains it.
An average is mathematically the
fairest thing in the world. Practi-
cally, somebody suffers at one end or
the other. This was demonstrated.
Another point demonstrated by ques-
tions from Senator Jones is that
price adjustment so far has been for
LOCAL MENTION.