The Washington herald., 1918-01-04


Either today or tomorrow. so the
news comes from Senator La Fol-
Iette's Office. Governor Phillips. Of
I Wisconsin, will take his pen in hand,
call the State legislature together
and then await their meeting and
! their subsequent refusal TO give him
power to appoint man to the Sem
atorial vacancy created by the death
of Paul o. HustinG.
After that the governor will let
the legislature go home The law
does net permit him to name the
man, and the legislature will not
give him the right because the mem
bCrs-that is. a combination of the
Democratic machine men and the
! La Toilette men-believe that the
governor would only play horse and
name a man who would later get out
Of the way for him TO make the race
himself
| Thus the place will go vacant un-
| til the election is held in the fall
and until the time comes when the
governor can take the field.
Verify, a studied playing of politics
that is to be deplored. And yet
the cry of some of our good progress
siYe friends used to be that pupu-
| lar government had reached it's apex
! in Wisconsin and that in Wisconsin the
! people had every power to do what
| they wanted to. and officers had no
power to do things the people didn't
want them to do.
Our good friend. DR.. McCarty.
! should return home and do mission
AIRY work there. There is either a
miscarriage Of some very important
parts of justice, or else a >woeful
misunderstanding of what constitutes
real government by the people.
/ Railroad legislation. particularly
| the regulatory side, was the sub
! ject of referendum lately tried out
on the commercial organizations Of
the nation by the U. S. Chamber
of Commerce.
The result of this referendum show
ed a most unusual strength in favor
of taking steps in handling the rail-
road situation:
| 1-Provision to be made for Fed
! eral regulation of the issuance of
securities. on the lines. presumably,
! of the stocks and bonds acts which
some of the States have on their
! law books.
2-Congress shall pass a general
railroad Incorporation law under
which all roads subject to the juris-
dfction Of the Interstate Commerce
| Commission will be organized and
conducted.
'3-That where intrastate rates con-
| flict with interstate rates-and this
we interpolate may be in almost any
case the Interstate body cares to
cite-the Interstate body shall have
Jurisdiction.
| The latter step. we might recall to
the minds OF many of our readers.
was included in the Republican ma
! tional platform last year, and was
| severely fought by the Democratic
party when the leaders of the. latte,
party realized that this Endorsement
upheld the stand taken by Justice
Hughes in affirming. the Shreveport
decision of the Interstate Commerce
Commission in a now famous case.
The belief on the hill is that the
decision of the President to take over
the roads and to make Mr.. McAdoo
, their Director General, presages pos
sibly a later attempt to actually go
| over to governmental ownership. No
one, when this is mentioned. however,
takes firm ground with reference to
what position the President might
hold on that question. Some of his
appointees are strong for government
ownership-wc know Mr.. Burleson is
but think of what government owner
ship would he with the Postmaster
General at the head of il!
There are many, many things to
consider before this step is taken, and
both Congress and the President VIII
fconsider them before thS next leap is