The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1919-07-02
new RAIL PLANS
on SOUND BASIS
Congress Determined to Make
Certain Future Growth of
Transportation Facilities.
PLANS AGREE PRINCIPLES.
Return of Roads to oWAes With
i Assurance Of Adequate
Revenues.

Washington.-One of the big prob
lens before the new Congress is get
ting the railroads back on a peace
basis. These 100000 miles of steel
highways were taken over by the Gov
eminent as an indispensable arm Of
the national defense; but now that
their war service is over, there is
countrywide demand that the Gov
ernment restore them to their owners
to be operated on normal American
business standards of efficiency.
But, as has been pointed out by
President Wilson as well us by many
men in public life who have given
this subject years of careful study,
it is not enough simply to say to the
| railroad companies, Take these rail-
roads and give the country the best
bruins can provide"
Old Laws Obstruct Growth.
The President recently said that it
would be a serious mistake to return
to the old conditions of railroad regu-
lation without reforming the anti
quated laws that were obstructing the
free development of transportation IA
cilities. The Director General of Rail-
roads has recently made an inspection
trip from coast to coast, and he has
been telling the people that the time
has now come to put the railroads on
u sound foundation.
The plans for q better system Of
national control of railroads are as
varied as were the plans for banking
| and currency reform when Congress
received mandate from the people
to provide insurance against financial
panics. The public now demands in
surance against breakdown of rail-
road transportation, and the new Con-
| gress is undertaking this work as sec
ondary only to insurance against in
ternational warfare. Congress solved
the banking problem seven years ago
as a non-partisan issue, in which all
| the people had common interest, and
Congress evidently is tackling The
railroad problem with the same spirit.
While the many plans that have
been proposed differ in the methods
to be adopted in reaching the desired
goal, it has been pointed out by Sena
| tor Cummns of Iowa that all these
| plans have really very much in COM
mon--so much so that he is confident
that Congress will have little difficulty
in framing bill that will meet with
popular approval, and that will take
| the railroad question out of politics
for many years to come.
Many Plans With One Aim.
The Iowa Senator has command
ing position in this Congress because he
is the ranking member of the Interstate
! Commerce Committee of the United
| States Senate and it is in this com
mittee that the new railroad bin will
take final form. In an address before
a national meeting of business men
at ST. Louis Senator Cummins stated
that since the close of the war fully
thirty complete plans for new railroad
legislation had been submitted to him
by business men, economists. bankers,
railroad officials and owners, Govern
ment officials railroad workers and
| just plain citizens.
The basic principles upon which all
of these plans, with one exception,
agree are as follows:
I. Private operation is more eff
Client and more economical than
Government operation and the
public interest will therefore be
served by return of the roads to
private management.
2. To make certain that new
capital will be attracted to the