New-York tribune., 1918-02-08

lected TO the provision authorizing the
President to control rates subject to
an appeal to the Interstate Commerce
Commission.
Senator Poindexter said he believed
the general consensus of public opin-
ION is that the present system, by
which the railroads are compelled to
operate as rival competitors for bust
ness under private ownership with
very limited governmental regulations
Is a failure.
ut is great mistake, in my judg-
ment," the Senator said. "for this COM
mittee to recommend that on certain
date the railroads should be restored
to private owners without in any way
changing the dangerous and unscicn-
tific conditions which existed up to
the time the transportation systems
were taken over by the President.
II do not think that public opinion
will tolerate return to these condi-
tions. Public interests require that
competing lines should be regarded as
part of the transportation system Of
the country and that business should
be SO distributed between them as To-
afford, on the whole. the cleanest and
best service to the public.
Opposes Early Restorations
"Under the system, which it is pro-
posed by the committee amendment to
close of the war, some railroads earn
as high as so per cent upon their CAPT
talization, inflated as it is. while other
roads. which were equally necessary
to the communities which they served,
earned no profits at all. Under gov
ernment operation, with profits and
losses of all the railroads going ulti-
mately into one account, such Unequal
tiles would adjust themselves. Under
private ownership it is obvious that
this inequality of returns is incfface-
able and unjust.
"This bill makes no provision for
wholesale looting Of public transporta-
tion systems as was perpetrated in
the cases of the Chicago & Alton, the
Rock Island. the New York, New Ha-
ven & Hartford, the Perc Marquette,
the Frisco. the Cincinnati, Hamilton &
Dayton. and others.
"Perhaps S3O0,O0O0OO year could
be saved to the people Of the country
by doing away with the multiplication
of officials and the cutting down Of
overlarge salaries if the roads were
consolidated and operated as one
transportation system"
lie CcudlOT dSSSi Us tlIdC Vic pldli
proposed by the committee for the
President to initiate rates is "illogical
and unworkable."
Wants Independent Judgment
''It is a little too much to expect of
human nature that officials who owe
their official existence to the Presi-
dent will be able, however much they
may try, to exercise any real indie
pendent Judgment or action in setting
aside the Presidents orders in the
matter of rates.
State or local railroad directors will
be appointed soon in a number of
communities of the congested East by
Director General McAdoo. Many of
these will be representatives of state
public utilities commissions. The Di-
rector General reached this decision
as a result of complaints that long
hauls still we're being made by rail
roads regardless of the general order
to haul over the shortest line.
A bill to make the long and short
haul clause Of the railroad law abso-
lutte, and take from the Interstate
Commerce Commission discretionary
power to enforce it. was introduced
to-day by Senator Henderson, of Ne
vada, and referred to the Interstate
Commerce Committee. The bill, it is
understood, has the approval of the
state railroad commissions and ship
pers in the intermountain territory,