Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-12-03

public treasury. But all these neccs SiticS have now been served, and the question is, what is best for the rail roads and for the public in the future. Exceptional circumstances and OK. ceptiOnal methods of administration ! were not needed to convince us that the railroads were not equal to the immense tasks of transportation i'm posed upon them by the rapid and continuous development of the indus tries of the country. We knew their full cooperation was rendered i'm possible by law and their competition made obligatorp, so that it has been impossible to assign to them several ly the traffic which best could be i carried by their respective lines in the interest of expedition and na- i tional economy.
 I We may hope, l believe, for the for
 nal conclusion of the war by treaty by the time spring has come. The twenty one months to which the pres ent control of the railways is limited after formal proclamation of peace shall have been made will run at the farthest, take it, for granted, only to the January of 1921. The full equipment of the railways which the federal administration had planned could not be completed within any such period. The present law does not permit thexuse of the revenues of the several roads for the execution of such plans except by formal contract with their directors, some of whom will consent, while some will not, and therefore does not afford suffi- cient authority to undertake improve ments upon the scale which it would be necessary to undertake them. Ev- cry approach to this difficult subject matter of decision brings us face to face, therefore, with this unanswered
 question: What is right that we should do with the railroads, in the interest of the public and in fairness to their owners?
 Let me say at once that l have nc answer ready. The only thing this is perfectly clear to me is that it is mol
 fair either to the public or to tht
 owners of the railroads to leave tho
 question unanswered and that it vii presently become my duty to. rclin
 quish control of the roads, even be
 fore the expiration of the statutor,
 period, unless there should appca,
 some clear prospect in the meantime
 of legislative solution. Their re
 lease would at least proruce one ele
 ment of solution, namDlp, certaint.
 and quick stimulation of private
 initiative.
 I believe that it will be seryiceabl . for me to set forth as explicitly a
 possible the alternative courses tha lie open to our choice. We ca1 F simply release the roads and go bacl to the old conditions by both stat 5 and affirmative public regulation an . go to the opposite extreme and es
 tablish ownership: or we can adop [ an intermediate course Of moditie private control under more unifie
 and affirmative publi cregu'ation an under such alterations of the law a i. will permit wasteful competition t ' be avoided and considerable degre , of notification of administration to b :. effected, as. for example, By region al corporations under. which the rail ! way; of definable areas would be i i effect combined in single systems. :. The one conclusion that 1 am ]. state with confidence IS that it woul i be disservice alike to tue countr and to the owners of the railroads
 return to the old conditions modified