The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-08-23

RAILROAD PROBLEM NOT NEW.
c. F. Adams Argument for Public Own
ership 40 Years Ago,

Forty-six years ago Charles Francis
Adams appeared before the Massachu-
sets legislature and made an argument
for the public ownership of the chief
railway system of that state. As the
distinguished author of the celebrated
investigation of the scandals of the Erie,
entitled "A Chapter of Erie" and as the
leading member and founder of the rail-
way commission of Massachusetts, the
first in the country, Commissioner Ad-
ans was heard with great respect and
attention. He was then the foremost
authority on railways in the nation and
appeared on the invitation of the legis-
lature.
In introducing his thesis for state own
ership, Commissioner Adams quoted fa-
vorably from The Nation of Feb. 6. 1873,
"a paper well known for its ability and
for its free>trade proclivities deter
mined opponent Of the whole theory and
system Of paternal meddling and gov
ernment interference" From an argu-
ment against government interference
with industrial undertakings generally,
the Nation is further quoted as fol-
lows:
"There is but one case which war
rants such interference, and that is es-
sentially the same for all departments
publican government when any one
branch Of the business of the communi-
ty is so monopolized that citizens can no
longer share in or control it, and so mis-
managed that they can no longer en-
dure IT, When that day comes
government is warranted, all other rem
edies having failed, in prostrating pri-
waite enterprise by the crushing hand Of
power, and supplanting private indus
try as best it may"
Mr. Adams accepted this statement
and at once went on to show that the
railroad business is different from other
business, such as the shoe trade, a cotton
factory and the like, by being pgacti-
cally free from the ordinary influence
of competition and the laws of supply
and demand.
Transportation by rail" he says, lis
a pure, absolute monopoly, affected only
by law and considerations Of self-in-
terest, and in no degree subject to the
influence Of either competition or supply
and demand" He showed that the only
points where a semblance Of competition
entered in was where railways crossed
at functions or came together at common
terminals, and that even here where
combination was possible, competition
was impossible as old George Stephen
son had pointed out in the infancy of
railways.
"The only competition which exists
Mr.. Adams asserted lis between land
transportation and water transportation
When water enters into the struggle
when navigation opens Athen the freight
agents meet, and rates are reduced;
when the lakes freeze up, then the
freight agents meet again, and the rates
are raised. Whether reduced or raised,
however. the change always is the result
of combination.
What Mr.. Adams said at that rather
remote time is to-day largely applica-
Bile to the solution of our national rail.
way problem now before Congress. The
distinguished railway genius went on in
this remarkable address, delivered Feb.
IA, 1873. to show the folly and fallacv
Of attempted government regulation Of
these public highways OF steel He called
the attempt at government regulation
unlimited meddling" with the business
farmed out by the government to an
other for private profit system that
could ultimately end only in failure. He
proceeded thus with his arguments
1T is indeed the opponents of state
ownership who are the firm consistent
friends of government meddling in in
dustrial enterprises. They insist that
the government shall do the work of
the railroad managers, and they call it
regulation They insist that govern
ment shall reduce meddling to a sys-
TEN, and they call it supervision They
muddle our railroad legislation into
mass of absurdities, and they call that
leaving the railroads alone. We have,
| insist, as regards our railroad system,
been on wholly wrong track. We have
been trying to regulate it, and all the
while say we were not regulating it; we
have been trying to NEEDLE, and say we
were not Modelling; we have been trying
to manage and control and supervise,
and all the while we have chartered and
canted about competition and the law
of supply and demand 1t is high time
that we began to see things as they are,
and to call them by their right names.
There is nothing which renders legisla
tion more difficult or more subtly per-
nicious than this getting hold of cor
rect principle, and, in dull, monoto-
nous, parrot like manner, making false
application of it. As regards railroads
we have been doing this for 40 years.
The application to the present emer-
gency is that if they had been doing
it for 40 years before this hearing Of the
Massachusetts, legislature, we have now
perpetuated this folly for period Of sc
years, and it is time to pause,-Louis w.
Rapeer in The Nation.