The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-02-07

Il TaliTOauS ana ina ne ID QOlnG IL
through these three men. Ashton,
Smith and Markham are three as
reactionary figures as you could find
anywhere. If you were to pick out
Senators Kellogg Of Minnesota, PEN
rose Of Pennsylvania and Bankhead
of Alabama, say, for the job Of CO.
ordinating the railroad systems in the
the public interest, you would get
about the same results.
"Take Ashton of the Northwest
ern. He is to administered the affairs
Of his competitors. How is he to do
it without causing friction? If there
is no friction, it will be plain that he
is not recognizing and shifting traf-
fic in order to get the best results;
he is letting the business of each
company alone. In other words, there
is no real government operations
in either case.
eff the railroad business is put on
a sensible basis by the government,
at least $3.50, 000, 900 will be saved the
people. That much will will be saved
in pooling terminals, changing rout-
ings, and using all the railroads as
M big property.
Kellogg Favors Railroads.
"This is just what our people in the
West imagined was being done. They
have been applauding the Govern
ment for doing it. But it has not
been done, and these three railroad
presidents who are now running the
thing, under the Director General,
won't do it,"
Senator Kellogg, who belongs to the
Senate Committee Insterstate COM
merce, is making a desperate at
tempt to show that the railroad COM
panies ought to be paid at least as
much as they earned for the average
of the past three years. Ex-senator
Joe Bristow of Kansas, testifying be-
fore the committee, showed that this
would mean an average of about IL
per cent a year on the stock Of rs Of
the biggest railroad systems in the
country. For the Burlington it would
mean Is per cent a year, and for the
Pacific and Great Northern
about 9,5 per cent a year. y
McAdoo For General Rates.
Director General McAdoo wants
Congress to pay these generous rates
to the stockholders of the roads, and
wants the whole question Of public
ownership to be put off until the end
of the war. So does Chairman Sims
of the House Committee on Interstate
who is following the adj
ministration program. They say that
the big thing is to get the bill thru
now, which pays the railroads accord
ing to their earnings Of the last three
years and 'debars public ownership
some other time. ,,
On last Saturday McAdoo seemed
to be opposed to public ownership. On
Monady he had changed, and was
down by Senator Cummins to.
admit these two things:
First, that it will be wrong for the
after the war, to put the roads
back in their old competitive game.
Second, that. this competitive game
is necessary to private ownership.
May Be Political Issue.
That looks as though McAdoo were
secretly willing to try public owner
but wanted to save it up as a
campaign issue for 1920.
He said, plainly, that it was the
Spectre of government ownership"
that prevented this country from hav-
merchant ships for this war, be-
cause it killed the Shipping Bill in
1914 that was to build up American
Chairman Smith of the Senate COM
has a "fear" of govern
ment ownership. Cummins said he
would not call his own sentimental
'fear;" on the contrary, he showed
that he was for public ownership right
away.
Public ownership is not a spectre.
It is a reality, and it is here, was La
way Of putting the stu
alton.
Real Economy Impossible.
AS a political issue government
ownership is here.
But that is all.
It is not going to carry that Senate
this winter, nor will it car
~ the House committee.
Government operation-the kind
hat will take up all these roads and
whip them into one big system, run
one big plan for carrying the
and their freight as cheaply
and as quickly and as we'll as possible
lis not here. That $750,00O,0O0
which. Tittemore, the railroad traffic
manager, spoke about, won't be saved.