The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1919-09-19
RAILROAD OWNERS DREAD PROBE
INTO THEIR FINANCIAL METHODS

iAOHOl dDle JONI o.. ESth, 0airman,
Committee on Interstate and For
eign Commerce, House Of Repre-
sentatives.
Dear Mr.. Chairman: Ny atten-
tion is called to report in the
Washington Post, to the effect that
you intend 70 confer with officials
of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission in order to learn whether
it will be practicable for that body
to conduct the investigation of rail
road financiering which / have re-
quested on behalf of the Organized
Railway Employees Of America.
May l say with reference to this
report, and with reference to your
questions Of like purport put to me
when l preferred the charges Of the
Railway Brotherhoods and their
ten affiliated railway Ia Dor organ
izations Of the American Federation
of Labor, that fear you have miss
ed the intent which actuated the
preferment of those charges at this
time. The investigation should be
made and reported upon before
Congress acts.
Congress needs enlightenments
If a political conspiracy exists, as
responsibly charged by labor organ
izations generally acknowledged to
be the most constructive in Amer
lea, to seek validation by Congress
of billions of fictitious railroad Sc
curities, prompt Investigation is
needed by a committee of the House
or Senate, or preferably, by a joint
committee of both houses. of evil
dence which we are prepared to
make available. Congress has now
the railroad problem before it.
Neither Congress nor the American
people can pass intelligently upon
this problem without the informa-
tion which we have and are pre-
pared to submit.
Now if Congress wishes to desig-
nate the Interstate Commerce
Commission as the instrument Of
the investigation demanded. well
and good. But it should be ex-
pressly provided that the investiga-
tion be prompt, in order that the
report of the Commission upon the
catalogue of charges may be placed
before Congress and the public be-
fore the enactment of any measure
looking to the restoration of the
railroads to hands which we de-
nounce as unclean.
With all Difference to you and to
the great Committee of the House
on Interstate and Foreign Com
merce. of which you are the hon
ored Chairman, permit me to reit-
crate these charges which have
been made with the utmost delib-
Grafton and care, with full sense
of their gravity, and sustained by
the weighty and conservative forces
of American labor uuionism with
the offer at once to substantiate
each and every one of them;
We charge that the railroads Of
the United States seek Of Congress
legalization of fraudulent prop
erty investment account. fraudu-
lent by billions of dollars and built
up in violation Of the Constitutions
of the separate States and of the
United States, On the basis Of
these fraudulent billions they seek
to fasten through act of Congress
a charge upon the cost Of living of
the entire nation by eXacting a re-
turn of at least per cent from eX-
cessive transportation rates.
We charge that the men who are
pushing this conspiracy through
the United States Chamber Of Com
merce and other bodies are controll-
ed in whole or in part by the Nor
gan interests. the Rockefeller in
terests and the Gould interests.
Through the interlooking director
ates of banks and trust companies,
these three financial groups con-
troll the 254,oO0 miles of railway
of the United States. We will sub
NIT complete charts showing these
interlocking directorates and finan-
cial interests in their relation to the
railroads
We charge that the five railway
valuations first completed and pub
lished by the Interstate Commerce
Commission show the aggregate
property investment accounts Of the
railways named therein to be dou-
BILE their estimated actual cost of
reproduction, new. We charge that,
so far as the Valuation Division of
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion has valued railroads after
nearly completing its survey Of the