The evening herald. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1906-1942, 1919-01-24
FRIDAY, JANUARY -. 1919
ALL THAT THE
TRAFFIC WILL BEAR.

The principle affirmed by Inter.
state Commerce Commissioner Ait
Gibson in his order that the Railroad
Administration revise lumber rates
from Northern California to the in
terior and the Atlantic seapoard is
so self-evident that the attempt to
question it is cause for surprise. The
need of a judicial body like the Intel
state Commerce Commission to con.
troll rate making is most conciusivsly
proved by the astonishing doctrine of
the Railroad Administration that ex.
traordinarily high rates on lumber do
not work hardship on the industry
because of the abnormal prices being
received for the products, says the
Oregonian.
That is the old brutal rule of
Charge all that the traffic will bear
which was followed in the days OF m
restrained private operation and pro-
voked the irresistible demand for
public regulation. The people ex-
pected that when the Government
took charge of the railroads the prir-
ciples of justice and reasonableness
upon which they have insisted thru
thirty years of agitation w,uld be
practiced On the contrary, the Rail
road Administration frankly :s2ives
the discarded rule as a principle nf
Government operation. 1t says in
effect, as c. p. Huntington might
have said: THE lumbermen are max.
ing lots of money They can stand
it"
If that is to be the system, the
greater is the need of commission
TO review the rates made by the Rail.
road Administration in order to make
them just and reasonable. Under
private operation competition af-
forded some little relief from the i'm
positions practiced by railroad mana
gers who had such low ideals; under
Government operation there is no
possibility of relief except in the au-
thority claimed by the commission
and denied by the Railroad Admins
tration. Hence there is greater need
of a reviewing body. That was no
doubt the intention of Congress when
it made rates of the Government sub
ject to revision by the commi5sipn. To
assert that Congress did not inttn1
that the commission should have pow
er to bring rates fixed by the Rail
with justice and reason is 10 assert
that Congress reversed the policy
consistently pursued for thirty years,
for the simple reason that the Gov
ernment had supplanted the corpora
tions While the latter had announc-
ed that they would charge all the
traffic would bear in conversation
and newspaper interviews, they left
it for the Government boldly to as
sert that doctrine in a judicial pro-
ceeding and to challenge any author
ity TO set il aside.
Moreover, it Is not true that the
are earning such profits
that they can be, Indifferent TO tie
railroad rates which they pay. While
the cost of labor and material has
also risen enormously. The lumber
men of the Pacific Coast are in active |
with those of the South, |
and their product must be hauled
twice as far in order to reach com
petitive markets. The Railroad Ad-
gave no attention to
his fact when ii made general ad
vance of 25 per cent, whereby the
lmount OF the increase for the l,ne-
r. haul was made much greater than
lat for the shorter haul. This In |
Inference had the effect OF giving |
he South an equivalent advantage.
The freedom from restraint claim
d by the Railroad Administration Is
n instance OF the dangers Inherent
A bureaucracy. II tends to ride
orehshod over all legislative and |
judicial restraints. Its pet scheme Is
0 reduce all things to uniform'ty
.thout regard 10 the fact that each