Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-08
BY CLINTON w. GILBERT
stan Correspondent of Evening Public Ledger
TODvriyIt 1919. bU IItblic Led1eT co.

tOpUrlyLt, 1919, DU FNBtic LedOef t"'
Washington, Nov. ).
THE country is going TO taste soon the
= sweets of privately operated railroads.
How soon nobody knows, for it is typical of
the incompetence with which this situation is
being approached that the President IS
threatening to return the roads to Their
owners and former operators at the end of
the year, though there shall be no suitable
legislation providing for their return
Their return under such circumstances
will work grave hardShips and at the same
time, though it is q year since the signing
of the armistice, Congress has no plans Tor
the re establishment of private operation,
That it will enact anything before the end
~,f the year no one believes.
Back to Old System
What Congress. in its wisdom, is likely to
proyide is return to government regulation
of railroads by the Interstate Commerce
Commission system which brought the
railroads to the verge of bankruptcy, which
stopped railroad development, which re-
suited in grave transportation crisis at the
outbreak of the war and forced the govern
nent operation of the roads. In place OF
regulation by one commission, the Cummlns
bill. which in one form or another is likely
tn DaSS, provinces LOT IcSulubioh pS tNo Nohi
missions The only step forward is the
declaration that it is the policy of the
Tinted States that the railroads could be
consolidated in not less than twenty and not
more than thirty five great systems But this
prospective consolidation is hedged about
with the statement that competition shall
he preserved whenever practicable, and
with the provision that it shall take place
only with the approval of the regulatlVe
bodies.
Change Comes at Critical Time
The railroads will go back to private
! oneration at Il grave moment. The best IN
formed persons look for a coal shortage this
winter. if the weather is normally cold and
traffic is normally interfered with by snow-
storms. To that prospect of a coal short
age is added the complication OF the coal
strike. Even though the strike is short, the
{ loss in production will be felt by industry,
for the fuel problem is II hand to mouth
nrohlem. The balance is delicate and any
! disturbance upsets it.
In addition, the process of returning the
roods to private ownership will cause con-
! fueion Senator Cummins declared in the
senate the other day that the employees of the
roilroads were already demoralized by a
nroSpect of change of operators. That de-
moralization will 60 on until the OIL, op-
orators are once more established in their
old paces. and confusion will come in all
probability at a moment when, unless all
Signs fail, the coal shortage will be critical.
There is another difficulty, Extravagant
vnectations have been raised in the public
mind by the propaganda the railway owners
have conducted against railroad operation
by the government This propaganda had
for its object to convince the public that
government operation was failure, and to
insure the prompt return of the railroads by
The government to the old operators. But
the critics of government operation have
oyerdone it. They have created the i'm
.pression that all that is the matter with the
railroads, all the faults of service since the
war, are due to the ineficiency of government
ownership. that high rates, less frequent
trains. delays in shiDments, poor meals il
the dining ears crowded cars, can all b.
cured by a return to the blessings of private