The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-19

fhe importance to this section of the Cummins railroad bill, now pending be- fore the Senate, in that under it's pro- visions it will be impossible for any rail road. by diverting freight, to display par tiality for eastern as against south At
 lantic and gulf ports.
 Several southern senators who opposed | the Cummins bill state that it is not their purpose in criGcising specific feat
 ures of the bill, permanently to oppose this legislation or to give aid and com
 fort to Senator LaFonette's filibuster for government ownership. They desired sim 1 ply to point out their Understanding or
 the measure. Senator Cummins chair
 man of the committee in charge of the | bill, was in some instance able to dfsabuse ] the mind sof senators who opposed cer- i tain sections, explaining the purpose of the bill and calling to their attention provisions which because of the intri- i cate and technical nature of the measure
 had escaped their attention.
 | The important section of the bill in i connection with development of the south ' is section 6. Long consideration of the | bill in committee brought out the sin {, gular situation which has prevailed and which has not generally been understood
 in the Senate until the present debate be- gan. In the past roads like the Union | Pacific and the Southern Pacific have had complete control of the division of freight rates, and have operated in the interest of the eastern ports to the eX- clusion of south Atlantic ports by decln- ] ing fair division of rates to the south ern ports IL is proposed i'll the Cummins bill that these divisions shall be taken | out of the hands of the railroad execu- l tives and put in the hands of the inter-
 state commerce commission. which will see that all ports get fair play. The bill is particularly explicit on the subject of fair divisions
 Under section the commission will be
 permitted to proceed in the same manner as 1t has in the past in estimating the revenue that a railroad would get from given rates. The railroads are grouped for the purpose of rate making. The
 main feature of the section is that roads like the great western roads will not hereafter be permitted to stand in the way of the southern roads getting their fair proportion of the return from rates, which on the present basis give too large a
 share to the powerful western roads. The interstate commerce commission under the bill will be permitted to ad- just rates so that southern and other roads will have enough funds for de- Eelopment of the territory through which
 they pass, and to geS fair return Should a rate yield too great return to
 rich and powerful road like the west ern roads mentioned, one-half of the excess above a stated amount would be retained by the road earning it and the
 other half put into fund which would be used to purchase equipment which
 could be leased and distributed to the railroads needing it as emergencies arose, and at times of congestion such as dur ing the fruit and truck-moving seasons in the south. Allocation of this equipment would be in the hands of a government body.
 Under this arrangement millions of dol- lars would be saved in the purchase of equipment by railroads, which equipment would be capitalized if purchased by the individual roads. And upon such capi- talization rates would be based which in ordinary circumstances would be higher than if investment in equipment was not carried to the capital account.
 There has bene much misapprehension that the bill took earnings from one road and gave them to another. Senator Cum mins explained that this was not the case.