The Pulaskian., 1918-01-11
PRESIDENT TELLS WHY U. $. SHOULD
 OPERATE ROADS
TO GUARANTEE PROPER RE TURNS TO ROADS DURING GoW-
 EMINENT OPERATION.
NO UNNECESSARY CHANGES
Should First Consider Transportation of Troops, Materials, Food, Fuel and All Things Necessary For Mobili-
 zation of Resources of Country.

zarlon or resources or country.
 Washington President Wilson laid before Congress, assembled in joint session, his recommendation for car rying out government operation of railroads. Bills to carry out the presi- dents idea already had been prepared under the supervision of the depart ment of justice and were immediately introduced with plans for prompt con sideration in both House and Senate.
 To guarantee proper returns to the roads during the period of government operation, the president recommended that Congress provide compensation at the rate of the same net operating in come as the roads have received for the three preceding fiscal years.
 To provide for proper maintenance of the roads and their return to own CTS in the same order as the govern ment takes them over, the president recommended legislation to authorize their upkeep and betterment during the period of Federal operation Legis- lation to this effect, is all contained in tho administration bills, which would appropriate S500,000,O00 fund for government operation.
 Only by government operation, the president told Congress, could the unity necessary to the country be ob- fa{ hn od T,at iofi ir1or ganizations of the railroads should be disturbed as little as possible.
 Guarantees To Roads.
 The president laid especial stress on the guarantees to the roads and their stockholders, saying on that point:
 'T need not point out the essential justice of such guarantees and their great influence and significance, as elements in the present financial and industrial situation of the country. h. deed, one of the strong arguments for assuming control of the railroads at this time is the financial argument. It is necessary that the values of rail way securities should be justly and fairly protected and that the large financial operations every year neces- sary in connection with the mainte- nance, operation and development of the roads should, during the period of the war, be wisely related to the finan- cial operations of the government.
 To Conserve Common Interest.
 Our first duty is, of course, to conserve the common interest and the common safety and to make certain that nothing stands in the way of the successful prosecution of the great war for liberty and justice, but it is also an obligation of public conscience and of public honor that the private interests we disturb should be kept safe from unjust injury, and it is of the utmost consequence to the govern ment itself that all great financial ope- rations should be stabilized and CO ordinated with the financial opera i. tions of the government.
 No borrowing should run athwart the borrowings of the Federal treas ury and no fundamental industrial values should anywhere be unneces- sarily impaired. In the hands of many thousands of small investors in the country, as well as in national banks, in insurance companies, in savings banks, in trust companies, in financial agencies of every kind, railway securi- ties, the sum total of which runs up to some ten or eleven thousand mil lions, constitute a vital part of the structure of credit, and the inquest toned solidity of that structure must be maintained"
 The president spoke as follows:
 "Gentlemen of the Congress: I have asked the privilege of addressing you in order to report that on the 18th of December last, during the recess of Congress, acting through the secre- tary of war and under the authority conferred upon me by the act of Con- gress approved August 2s, 1916, I took possession and assumed control of the railway lines of the country and the systems of water transportation under their control. This step seemed to be imperatively necessary in the inter est of the public welfare, in the pres ence of the great tasks of war with which we are now dealing.
 As our experience develops difiicul ties and makes it clear what they are I have deemed it my duty to remove those difficulties wherever I have the