Republican farmer., 1919-11-21
INCONSISTENCY
 IN REPORT OF
 l. C. COMMITTEE
Saunders of Louisiana, At tacks Railroad Bill
 In House
GOVERNMENT WILL
 RECEIVE WORST DEAL.
Must Pay Debts In Cash While Railroads Settle
 With Notes

Washington, D. C., Nov. 1S.-After six months of work, the House In terstate Commerce Committee has re- ported out a railroad bill that is as full of inconsistencies as a sieve is full of holes, in the opinion of Repre- sentative Jared '. Sanders, former governor of Louisiana.
 The bill, which was called up in the House this week, was attacked for it's many inconsistencies in speech on the floor of the House by MT. Sanders, who pointed out num- erous reasons why it will utterly fail to solve the railroad problem, with which the Republican controlled com mittee has now been wrestling for half a year.
 The bill before the House, known as the Esch bill, contains, among other things, a provision that when the roads are turned back to their owners and the time for settlement arrives, whatever the government may owe the roads must be paid in cash, but if the roads owe the gov ernment anything, the latter must take their notes for ten years for it.
 'The bill that comes before you," said MT. Sanders in his speech attack ing this feature of the bill, known as the Merritt amendment, stripped of it's verbiage, laid bare of technical phrases, means that when we come to a settlement with the railroads we must pay them on the nail dollar for dollar, whatever we owe them, but we cannot say to the railroads, we owe you $50, 100000 but you owe us ESQ., 00O.000 and we will pay you S2O,00o,- 000.' If you pass this bill, they say l you must pay the $50, 0,000,000G,' and the railroads will then be able to say, l after a while we will get together and we will figure on the $30, 900, ,0Oo, and then we will give you our note | for it, and if you can collect it if the property is solvent Why, it does not | even prescribe in this bill that the | amount that is owed to the govern 1 ment shall be a first mortgage. You | throw a sop to public opinion by stat l ,ng that it shall be a first-mortgage 1 wherever practical
 ! If I have a mans cash in my pos i session and he sues me for a settle l ment, I am going to say Yes, I owe 1 you $500, but you owe me $500. an6 | we will settle on that basis, and I vii | plead my compensation and set-offs. l There is not a man in the union wht cannot do that today, and the only | thing in all America, the only person 1 real or natural, who cannot take ad | vantage of that law will be the gov
 ernment of the United States if vol | pass this bill. You will pay the rail | roads dollar for dollar, cash on tht | nail what you owe them, and you vii 1 take their obligations for what the!
 owe you.'' 1 Another feature of the bill agains i which MT. Sanders protested is tha | known as the standard return pro l vision, guaranteeing a fixed return ol ] the investment to the roads for | period of six months after the pass 1 age of the act. Under the provision
 of this bill the road that makes nor
 than the guaranteed standard return | may place the excess in it's treasury
 but the poorer road, the railroad tha does not make the standard return
 may present it's voucher to the Gov
 ernment which will make up it's loss
 Gan you beat it?" asked MT. San
 ders. Can you justify it? Here is
 railroad that makes 30 per cent. Ina
 is fine business. They take that an 1 put 1t in their pockets. Here is an
 other that makes less than the stand | ard return and we say that Is al
 right; we will make it up out of tn
 pockets of our taxpayers What
 contended for in the committee an
 what I contend for here is that if yo
 are going to project this standard re
 turn for six months after the pass
 age of this act, there Is but one fai
 and just way of doing 1t. Do not eS
 empt the prosperous and take in aonl
 the poor. Take them all in for si , | months, just as you did under tn
 Federal Control act. Let the govern
 ment get the advantage of what tn
 rich roads are going to make, as tn l government will have to make up tn
 deficit of the poor road. There is nc i a line in the provisions that I hay
 discussed that is placed there for tn
 benefit of anybody in the world e1 cept the great transportation system Il of America.
 '.And If the bill becomes law, yo ! put the transportation facilities , America forever under the domins , ton of these great railroads. As ia 1 as I am concerned, I never will vol
 for a. bill I am honestly and sincerel
 convinced means that, and nothin :, but that. Transportation is the greai
 est question we have to solve W
 must solve it; we will solve it som time"
 2 CLERGYMEN TO