New-York tribune., 1917-01-12
The Fight on MIR. Daniels

iels as a member Of the Interstate Com
merce Commission. Mr.. Daniels was
named for a second term, and the fight
against him was made squarely on his
official record.
In our opinion he had clearly earned
denomination on that record. He has been
one of the few members Of the commits
sion in recent years to take broad, mod
ern view Of its functions. He has not
subscribed to the theory, popular and no
doubt excusable twenty years ago, that
the commissions chief duty is to terrorlze
and discipline the owners and managers
Of railroads.
There was a time when rough and sum-
mary treatment was needed to reduce to
good behavior railroad operators Of a
common type, inflated with false sense
Of their power and using it to their own
advantage and to the detriment not only
Of the public, but also Of their own bond
holders and stockholders. Government
regulation was necessary in order to reach
tbese uisusers of trusts. It has reached
most of them. It has thereby benefited
the real owners Of the railroads as much
As /. has benefited the payer of trans
nortation charges. And no body of cit
izens in the country is to-day more unitedly
in favor of stricter and completer regua-
ton Of railroad operations than the share
owners and bondholders who have IN
vested their money in railroad enterprises.
Mr. Daniels has always favored broad,
intelligent. helpful regulation of the COM
mon carriers. The theory still prevailing
in the commissioner punitive regulation
and scn1i-starvation as a preventive OF
further misconduct-has not appealed 70
him. lie has realized that in order to
accomplish anything constructive the com
mission must turn away from the past and
look to the future.
The transportation industry is one OF
orr basic industries. If it suffers from
artificial depression-the result OF narrow
minded or yindictive regulation-many
other industries must suffer. 1t is the
greatest single instrument of nationaliza-
ton in this country. It is the biggest
centralizng force, pulling against the
forces Of separation, Of the forty-eight
systems Of sovereignty in the forty-eight
states. II is also one Of the essential
factors in national defence. No scheme
of military preparedness would be worth
much which was not based on the efficiency
Of our national transportation system and
its availability for military uses.
So intelligent people everywhere are
cutting loose from the prevailing theory
cf regulation-inherited from the period
Of granger state rebellion against the old
fashioned iniquities Of railroad operation.
They see that nationalized railroad sys-
tenn is one of the greatest factors in the
economic and political progress Of the
United States. Anything that sustains,
improves and extends such a system must
benefit the whole country, and any policy
which seeks to keep the railroads poor,
weak, under-equipped and under-capital-
lied must react injuriously on the country
in the not distant future.
Mr.. Daniels has given his vote in the
commission against the petty semi-starva-
ton policy Of the last ten or fifteen years
He has thereby incurred the enmity OF
those who still retain the old prejudices
and see in every increase in railroad rates
however minute-a blow at the pro-
ducers who have TO use the railroads.
Railroad rates are fixed by law. The prices
of products shipped on the railroads have
risen 10, 20, 40. 100 per cent in the
last two years. But there are still those
who cry out in anguish against even
per cent increase in freight rates as a
crime against the shipper and the con-
sumer.
The state railroad commissions in the
Western States have taken the lead in
recent years in the effort TO prevent an
extension Of Federal regulation and to
keep the existing form of regulation
negative and punitive. They fear that
their power will vanish IL the regulation
Of the carriers becomes really nationalized,
really constructive. So it will; and that
would be one Of the chief benefits Of COM
plete Federal regulation.
Their parochial spirit is manifest in the
criticism made in the Senate on Mr.. Dan
iels's nomination. Mr.. Daniels, dissenting
from the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion's cheese-paring decision in the West
ern rate case, said very truly that Tex
pected earnings constitute the bid which
the carriers must make for new capital,
for needed improvements, extensions, new
rolling stock and similar purposes" SEN
ator Cummins now denounces him for ex-
pressing such a view. on the ground that
the railroads have not yet been punished
sufficiently for past sins-sins which the
carelessness Of the state governments and
the Federal government made possible.
Yet, except on the theory that the