Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-10

plexities will not be Opinionated. 1t is the
question of what to do with the railroads. The
President himself frankly says in his latest
message to Congress that he has mo conf
dent Judgment of his own, and he well ad-
monishes that nothing can be gained by be-
coming partisans of any particular plan of
settlement" On one aspect of the problem,
however, discerning students seem agreed;
and that is that in justice to the public and
to the railroads themselves there should not
be a reversion ia the unstable and bewilder-
ed order of things which prevailed before the
Government, moved by war emergency,
| took control. This is the one conclusion
which the President is ready TO state with
confidence:
'Tt would be disservice alike to the
country and to the owners of the rail
roads to return to the old conditions I'M
modified. Those are conditions of re-
straint without development. There
is nothing affirmative or helpful about
them. What the country chiefly needs
is that all its means of transportation
shall be developed-its railways, its
waterways, its highways and its country
side roads. Some element of pol
icy, therefore, is absolutely necessary
necessary for the service of the public,
necessary Ine release Oh circuit 10
those who are administering the rail-
ways, necessary for the protection of
their security holders. The old policy
may change much or little, but surely
it cannot wisely be left as it was
That the service of the public requires
such a change is evident from the distress
ing inadequacies of transportation which ex-
listed in the period just prior to Govern
ment control. None can question that the
nations war interests would have suffered
disastrously had not those efficiencies that
were impossible under the old regime been
brought about through the unified control
which at that time the Government alone
could institute. 1t should be remembered,
however, that the traffic problems which be-
came so acute under stress of war had been
growing for long years. For at least de-
cade farsighted observers have warned that
Americas transportation facilities were not
d. clipping apace with country industrial
and commercial needs, and that soon or
late public interests would demand policy
under which those needs could be amply
served. That time is now come. The end
ing of the war, though it will tighten the
pressure on the railroads, will in no wise
leave them able to meet the immense tasks
of the reconstruction period that looms upon
u.s. Responding to world demands, produc-
ton of all kinds in the United States will be
greater than ever before, and cor
respondingly greater will be the strain
upon our transportation systems. If,
then. the interests of producers and of
the people generally are to be safeguarded
and the nations continued prosperity as
sured, there must be such changes in the
railroad regime as will guarantee adequate
service. Adequate service implies, of course,
equitable rates to shippers, and is INSOFAR
able from the obligation of full justice both
to the employees and the owners of the rail
roads
This should be the prime consideration in
any program which Congress may adopt. But
the crucial question is, how can this OBJ
jective best be attained? What direction
must the changes take and how far-reach-
ing must they be? Their direction, it would
seem, should be toward unified control and
co-ordinated activities, as distinguished from
the altogether distinctive policy of the past.
This does not mean, however, that absolute
Government control or Government owner
ship is necessary. If we can secure the CO.
ordination needful for efficiency and the
regulation needful for fair play to all the
interests concerned, and can secure these adj
vantages without sacrificing the great asset
of individual initiative and enterprise, sure
ly it will be wiser to do so than to embark
upon course of bureauracy and paternal-
ism the results of which would be, to say
the least, extremely doubtful The probIem
of Congress, as we see it, is to steer between
the manifest unwisdom of thrusting the
railroads back into the old ruts of indivfd-
ualism and the very dubious proposal to COM
NIT them to outright Government owner
ship. The task of finding and working out
this intermediate course is worthy of the
highest efforts of craftsmanship, for upon its
welfare largely depends
Furthermore, it is an urgent task, for the
President has significantly declared: 81
stand ready and anxious to release the roads
from the present control; and l must do so
at a very early date, If by waiting until the
statutory limit of time is reached 1 shall be
merely prolonging the period of doubt and
uncertainty which is hurtful to every in
terest concerned" It is to be hoped, there
fore, that Congress will institute forthwith
an unprejudiced study of this vast and COM
pick problem, either through a special COM
mission or through one of its existing COM
mittees, to the end that It may reach a
prompt and sagacious solution.