Connecticut western news., 1919-07-10
Congress Determined to Make Certain Future Growth of
 Transportation Facilities.
PLANS AGREE ON PRINCIPLES.
Return of Roads to Owners With Assurance of Adequate
 Revenues.

basis. These 100000 miles of steel highways were taken over by the Gov ernment as an indispensable arm of the national defense; but now that their war service is over, there is a 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 by President Wilson as we'll as by many men in public life who have given this subject years of careful study, 1t 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 1t would be a serious mistake to return to the old conditions of railroad regu- lation without reforming the anti quated laws that were obstructing the free development of transportation fa- cilities. 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. rssa ..a.t:.y u.5+
 The plans for a 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 in- surance against a breakdown of rail- road transportation, and the new Con- gress Is undertaking this work as sec ondary only to insurance against h. ternational warfare. Congress solved the banking problem seven years ago as a non-partisan issue, in which all the people had a common interest, and Congress evidently is tackling the railroad problem with the same spirit.
 While the many plans that have been proposed differ in the methods to be adopted in reaching the desired goal, 1t has been pointed out by Sena- tor Cummins of Iowa that all these plans have really very much in 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 One Aim.
 The Iowa Senator has 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 a national meeting of business mer 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 hin by business men, economists, bankers railroad officials and owners, Govern ment officials, railroad workers anC just plain citizens.
 The basic principles upon which al of these plans, with one exception
 
 i. Private operation Is more eff | cient and more economical than 1 Government operation, and the public interest will therefore be
 served by return of the roads to : private management.
 2. To make certain that new
 capital will be attracted to the
 expansion of railroad facilities,
 there ought to be greater certain
 ty that fair return will be earn
 ed on the investment.
 3. The merging of weak and
 strong roads into large competing
 systems should be encouraged.
 The making of a formula to pro vide fair return on railroad capita seems likely to be the phase of tn problem most thoroughly debated fl Congress. The Director General ha been urging that the Governmen ought to guarantee a certain return and share in any excess earnings Leading bankers, especially some O the international bankers in Wal street, who have in the past markete Ol TdllrOd securities, also look favorably on tn suggestion of a Government guarar tee, which will make it easier to sei new securities, and will also stabiliz the market for the old bonds an stocks.
 Government Guarantee Opposed.
 But the proposal that the Goverr 1 ment shall guarantee the interest an dividends on private capital investe in railroads will undoubtedly mee with very vigorous opposition in man quarters. Even railroad executive who might be supposed to take kindl to the idea of a Government guarante against failure, have frankly state that they do not want 1t, because the believe 1t is un-American in principl, would tend to lessen efficiency, an would involve the roads in a Gover1 ment partnership that would inevit; bly, lead to Government ownership