The Washington herald., 1919-02-11
RAIL men Want
U. S. OWNERSHIP
A. B. Garretson Says Work
ers Approve Government
Administration.

The four big brothcrhoods of rail-
road men, embracing a working men,
bership Of 10000 employees, are for
permanent government ownership of
the railroads as the only practical So
luton of the problem, according to A.
b. Garretson, president of the order
or Railway Conductors.
Mr.. Garretson made his statement
10 members OF the Senate Interstate
commerce Committee at the hearing
yesterday. A vote Just taken on the
subject by the members of all railway
unions is being tabulated here, and
shows the workers to be almost unani-
mously in favor of government owner
ship.
Service at Cost Plan.
The Garretson idea of government
ownership differs somewhat from the
plan suggested a few days ago by
Glenn +. Plumb, counsel for the broth
erhoods, in that it calls for service to
the public at cost. The Plumb plan
suggested operation at a profit by
providing for division of the net
revenue between the government and
union operatives.
In his statement to the committee
Mr.. GarretsOn disclosed that w. S.
Stone, chief of the Brotherhood of
Engineers; W. G. Lee, chief of the
brotherhood OF Trainmen, and Tim
Othy Shea, chief of the Brotherhood
Of Firemen, all originally advocates
OF private ownership of railroads, had
been converted to the principle of gov
srnment ownership. Mr. Garretson
said he spoke for them as well as for
himself when he said:
We are strongly Of the opinion that
the railroads can best be administered
by n direct government agency. oper-
ated not to make profits, but to fur
nlsh service at actual cost"
Mr. GarTetsOn put the brother
hoods on record as opposed to any
plan for guaranteeing an income re-
turn to the railroads under private
ownership. If that principle were
once adopted, he argued, It would
have to be extended to cover all
public utilities, a thing he deemed
to be simply as impossible as alb
suTd. He asserted that if the gov
ernment were made liable for def
icit in the income of the railroads
then it must logically become a
sharer also in their profits. which
would Iresent the equivalent OF
government partnership.
Whether the railroads are re-
turned or retained" said Mr.. Gar
retson, the matter of regulation
and rate fixing must be on the basis
Of valuation Why" he asked
should pOsterity be burdened with
constant expansion of CapitaIiza-
tion when exact methods exist for
putting rates on a cost basis?'
In answer to questions Mr.. Gar
retson said he never had been
able to determine how to get all the
roads on an equality as to rates,
but he suggested whimsically ii
might be dOne-assuming that the
members of the committee had
knowledge of the great America n
game Of draw pOker-by putting all
the roads into a sort of jackpot and
letting a universal rate take care of
thSm.
r. Garretson declared it was
surd" to suppose that the threads
social life could be licked up now
lid rejoined in the form they were
before the war. and that it was still
10 be demonstrated whether the
forces lOOsed by the war were TO he
used for good or evil. The financial
and operating sides of the railroads,
in his opinion, are practically one,
and the task of Congress is now to
determine whether both functions
can be best performed by govern
ment or private ownership.
Approves Budget.
In reply to a question by Senator
Underwood. Mr.. Garretson said that
he certainly approved a budget to
enable the roads to serve the public
if the Congress intended to return
the roads to private ownership.
Charles E. COttrell. a representa-
tive of the Southern Traffic League
told the committee that many
Southern men would be forced into
bankruptcy il the wholesale reyi-
sion of freight rates initiated un-
der the arbitrary power of the Di-
rector General was continued.