New-York tribune., 1919-01-11
o.
Iowa Man Would Wipe Out
y Rule Making Orders of
the President Supreme
Five Remedies Proposed
to the McAdoo
Five-Year Scheme Heard
by Senate Committee
New York Tribune
Dnroo,,

Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.--Immediate
repeal Of certain powers granted the
Administration under the emergency
railroad control act was demanded of
Congress to-day in q statement filed
with the Senate Interstate Commerce
Committee by Clifford Thorne, former
State Railroad Commissioner of Iowa,
representing a group of Western and
Middle Western shippers.
Mr.. Thorne demanded specifically
that the law be amended so as to-
1. Strike out the provision giving
orders of the President precedence
over state and Federal laws and the
common law, where conflict occurs;
2. Compel the railroad admnistra-
ton to pay final judgments against
the roads;
3. Restore the suspension power of
the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Mr.. Thorne was permitted to file his
statement before the time set for the
shippers to be heard because he was
compelled to leave Washington to-
night.
Five Solutions Before Committee
Submission of his paper furnished
the Senate committee with the fifth
separate and distinct point of view
that has been presented concerning the
proper solution of the railroad prob
lem. The other four are:
Director General McAdoo's demand
for tive-year "test period" of gov
ernment control.
The Interstate Commerce Commis-
sions demand for private control
under strcter government regula-
ton.
The proposition of the railroad ex-
ecutives that the roads be returned
to private management with power in
the roads to initiate rates under a
government guarantee of adequate
returns; that all executive and ad-
ministrative powers be taken from
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion, and that these powers, with
authority to approve mergers and
pools under a repeal of the antitrust
and anti-pooling laws affecting rail
roads, be lodged with new depart
ment of the government presided over
by secretary of transportation,
and
The attitude of the state rail
road commissions, still to be pre-
sented, calling for a preservation of
all the powers over interstate traffic
now exercised by the state bodies.
The proposition of Senator Cum
Minis, of Iowa, still to be presented,
that the government take over own
ership of the roads and lease them
out to private operating companies,
may add sixth to the list.
McAdoo Argument Answered
To-day's session of the committee,
contrary to the original purpose to go
on with the examination of repre-
sentatives of the railroads, was taken
up with a further questioning of Ed
gar f. Clark, Interstate Commerce
Commissioner, representing the major
ity view of the commission. His tes-
timony was in the nature of re-
buttal of arguments presented both by
Director General McAdoo and I. De-
Witt Cuyler, chairman of the Assoca-
tion of Railway Executives.
The committee, after hearing aMr
Clark, adjourned until Monday morn
ing, when it will examine Robert w.
Woolley, Interstate Commerce Com
who, dissenting from his
colleagues on the commission, favors
the McAdoo proposal. Mr.. Woolley
was in charge of publicity for the
Democratic National Committee in
1916
Senator James Hamilton Lewis, of
Illinois, who, until to-day, had not at