The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-20

in relation to anything that objection is not raised on the ground that it is new,
 until a large number of people are con vinced that it Is right, whether it is right or wrong. Then propaganda may be organized in it's favor, whereupon it is instantly progressive"
 Regarding the contention of the rail- roads that the government should guar antee them a fair return, but at Ehe
 same time should not limit their capacity to earn, Senator Underwood said:
 Some have asked, Why should you limit the earning capacity of the rail- roads?' That question was asked 30 or
 40 years ago. That was when the bill creating a commission to regulate rates
 was passed, The men who owned the
 railroads in that day, said: Why, this is
 our private property; the government has no right to step in and say that we shall charge for the carriage of persons and freight. We have a right to charge what ever we can get. Nevertheless, the gov ernment did establish a commission to fix and determine what rates must be,
 and in 1906 made it absolute that the gov ernment had the right to fix rates and the supreme court has sustained such legislation ali the way.
 What is the difference between direct ly, absolutely and unequivocally saying, so that everybody can know you are do- ing and talking about, that the earning capacity of a railroad shall be limited to 6 per cent, and having the commission in an indirect way say that the freisht rate for hauling bale of cotton sflaN be so much, for a bag of potatoes so
 much and for a bull year'ing so much. and that the charge for ota~r eon'nos'- ties shall be limited to so m@cS n ~s aggregate, saying to the railroads, I ou shall not earn more than that amountT ''In principle, it is exactly the same proposition, and the same question that is raised today, that we have no right to limit the earning capacity Of the railroads, was the song of the men wno attempted to prevent a commission reg ulating railroad rates more than 90 years ago"
 Senator Underwood vigorously denied that the provision that earnings in ex- cess of per cent be taken by the gov ernment for the use of the pubic, const1- tuted a tax. He said:
 '.It is not a tax. It is a limitation on the right to earn money, and that iimi- tation has been conceded for % years.
 The increased earnings go into a special
 government fund. For what purpose
 To be used in the interest of the people
 of the United States. Have we not the
 right to use money in the deveiopmnt or
 transportation facilitis?
 "What is the public service? First, it
 may be used to lend to the railroads
 where they need money to improve their
 facilities to the public. It can be lent to
 them to build new cars. It can be lent 10
 double track their roads. It can De lent
 to build new spur tracks and new lines.
 It can be lent, at reasonable interest
 rates to improve facilities along exist
 ing lines Is not that in the interest
 xx,;U Ia tendency fO
 bring down the money cost and the
 money charges for the borrowing of rali-
 roads It will put this government fund
 in competition with the funds of the
 bankers and the brokers who have been
 lending money for the public development
 at higher rates of interest That IS
 clearly in the public interest.
 .-There is another purpose for which IT
 can be used in the public interest, and that is to invest it in a great. car service corporation where the government can build cars and engines and rent them to the roads, the weaker or stronger roads, in order that greater transportation fa- cilities may be accorded to the public IS not that in the interest of the American people? Is it not in the interest of the man who lives on the line? And what right has the railroad owner to complain ! He may say, ''I have a great, poWer1ui road and I do not want you to afford means of competition to my weaker com petitor; I want to keep him down so that he cannot Junction. But that is weak and selfish argument. It cannot go here. Suppose this fund accumulates so that we can develop a great transportation corpora tion There have been complaints in this session of Congress against the meat packers, that their monopoly has developed because they control the refrig- erated car service. If this bill was fh- ished and this fund in existence it could be used to build for the government re-
 frigerator cars that would meet any mo-
 nopoly and give service to pepople imam