Tombstone epitaph., 1919-08-03
NEW RAIL PLANS
 ON SOUND BASIS
Congress Determined to Make Certain Future Growth of
 Transportation Facilities.
PLANS AGREE ON PRINCIPLES
Return of Roads to Owners With Assurance of Adequate
 Revenues.

ltulS btlpIt i1it ntN SpIHFfSS IT efl- ting the railroads back on peace ha-is. These 2,D.OOO miles of stee! highways were taken over by tine Gov ernment as an indispensable arm of the national defense; but now that their war service is over, there is n 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 ny President Wilson as well as ny 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 transportation service that money and brains can provide"
 Old Laws Obstruet Growth.
 The President recently said that it would be a serious mistake to return to the old conditions of railroad regu- iation without reforming the anti 1uated laws that were obstructing the free development of transportation fa- ciities. 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 a sound foundation.
 The plans for better system of national control of railroads are as varied as were the plans for banking and currency reform when Congress received a mandate from the people to provide insurance against financial panics. The public now demands 'n- surance against a breakdown of rail road transportation. and tine 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 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 fin the methods to be adopted fin reaching the desired goal. 1t has been pointed out hy Sena- tor ,Cummins of Iowa that all these plans have really very much Tn 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 ors Ain.
 The Iowa Senator has a 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 bill will take final form. In an address before 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:
 1. Private operation is more eff.
 eient and more economical than
 Government operation, and the
 public interest will therefore be
 served by return of the roads to
 private management.
 1A Naka rArx.f~
 capital will be attracted to the
 expansion of railroad faeiIitIes.
 there ought to be greater certain.
 ty that fair return will be earn.
 ed on the investment
 ,. The merging Of weak and
 strong roads into large eompetina
 systems should bs sneouraoed.
 The making of a formula to pro vide a fair return on railroad capital seems likely to be the phase of the problem most thoroughly debated in Congress. The Director General has been urging that tLe Government ought 10 guarantee a certain return and share in any excess earnings. Leading bankers. especially some of the international bankers In Wall street. who have in sne past marketed many hundreds of millions of railroad securities, also lSok favorably on the suggestion of a Government guaran- tee. which will make 1t easier to sell new securities, and will also stabilize the market for the old bonds and stocks
 Government Guarantee opposed,
 But the proposal that the Govern ment shall guarantee the interest and dividends on private capital invested in railroads will undoubtedly meet with very vigorous opposition In many quarters. Even railroad executives, who might be supposed to take kindly to the idea of Government guarantee against failure, have frankly stated that they do not want 1t, because they believe 1t is un-American in principle, would tend 10 lessen efYiciency, and would involve the roads In . Govern ment partnership that would inevita. ply lead to Government ownership.