The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1917-02-24
WHAT is BEHIND IT.?


Dispatches from Carson tell us the charge is openly
made that politics is behind the effort to reconstruct the
railroad commission by automatically retiring the chie1
commissioner, advancing the first associate and cutting the
maximum compensation of the other two to a figure below
that paid to the janitor who takes care of the commissions
quarters. In other words, providing for a commissioner
instead of a commission.
The Tribune doesn't assume to know what is be
hind the bill or all that may be lurking in 1t, but 1t IS
fully aware that the reason given by its author, "retrench-
ment, is not the real reason tor its birth. he real Cd
ject is either emasculation in behalf of those who object to
regulation; a political ambition that somebody values more
highly than the public veal; or some railroad company or
public service corporation has a grievance or a desire TO-
something that ought not to be done. There is one thing
that is neither behind the bill nor in the bill, and that IS
the public welfare.
Nevada has over 1000 miles of railroad and there is
no company operating such a mileage as this that does not
expend more money in %fortifying its rate department with
the data and the legal service necessary to meet the q'les-
tons forced upon it by the shippers and the people, and TO
keep its rates in proper adjustment under constantly
changing conditions, than Nevada has spent in support =
her railroad commission. 1t cannot be charged, at least
by the railroad companies themselves, that their own eX-
p%enditures in this direction, or any portion OF them, are
improper or unwarranted. The people employed by the
railroad companies in this work are presumably the most
capable to be found and to their natural capabilities is
added the advantage OF special training.
The railroad companies are in every sense the sole
clients of these rate experts. 1t cannot be said OF them
that they are unbiased or always impartial, nor IS this eX-
pected of them. They are expected to make the best
showing possible for those who employ them. AS to the
railroad commissioners, they are presumed to represent
dlQ DlOlCSl I'll lllClCSlS, dNu Willy lS olipPNio oN NV
their sole clients, yet the commission is the peoples sole
protection in relation to most of the complaints they have
occasion to make.
If the commission is to be effective, its work must be
thorough, SO comprehensive and SO accurate as to com
mand not only the respect OF the people but the respect OF
the railroads and the courts, and while many could be
found who would cheerfully assume all the labor and re-
sponsibilites of the present commissioners at a Jan1tors
compensation, yet the type OF men whose opinions and
findings would command respect and stand the test of the
courts are otherwise employed.
The expense of maintaining the commission for the
last two years, as shown by the controllers report, was
$~37OO26o, or S~IS,0oo.3o per year. And we are told the
proposed change will save the state $4,000 per year
What would it save the railroad companies? The COM
mission has saved the shippers and the general public a
good many times what it has cost. And their findings
have commanded respect and confidence and have resisted
in the courts the attacks made upon them by railroad COM
panies and others. Better, infinitely better, to kill the
commission than to emasCulate it.
The Tribune is a firm believer in the doctrine that all
matters of railroad regulation should be left to one COM
mission, the interstate commerce commission, rather than
a multiplicity of commissions, federal and state. But until
that condition comes we should have a state commits
sion, and that state commission should be efficient. What
is 'behind' this bill ?