Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-08
Danger Signals Face Railroads
Transportation Systems When Operating Under Hybrid Manage
VIII Hare Many Critics, Especially Advocates of
Plumb Naturalization Plan

operation. But all the faults that are to be
found in the operation of the railroads to-
day are to be found equally in every service
in hotels and restaurants, telegraph and
telephone companies in stores in the home
itself. They are the consequence of the war,
the result of a shortage of labor and of in
creased costs everywhere.
But by inference the railroad propaganda
has raised the hope that once the roads are
again under private ownership everything the
public has cause to complain of now will
instantly and as if by magic disappear. The
railroads will at once resume their old high
efficiency. For costly and restricted and
uncertain service will be substituted a cheap,
abundant and regular service.
The railroads, under private ownership,
will be under the common burden of costly
and inadequate labor. Where the nation has
gone on growing they have been unable to
explain, Yearly they have become under
government regulation less qualified to per-
form their task. 1t is not iLconcevabe for
a time at least after their return to private
operation they will do worse than they are
doing now under government direction. This
is at least as likely as that any marked i'm
provement will promptly appear.
Hybrid Management Next
This is not said in any prejudice against
, pTlNule DuU IHe tulDR Wnlcn VIII
come will not be full private operation. but
that hybrid thing that has worked badly
for several years, that mixture of private
operation and government interference
which will be emphasized by the tendencies
of the Cummins bill.
1t is neither one thing nol the other, nor
has it the virtues of either one, and it will
start to function at a trying time when
efficient privately run businesses free from
government regulation are having difficulty
in approaching their old standards.
We are going then to return to the private
ownership of railroads, under system which
has failed, in pursuance of plan hastily
conceived, at moment when a coal short
age threatens, when labor is scarce and when
services of all kinds are demoralized, with
roads whose development has been prevented
| from keeping pace with industry, and yet
with the public expectations aroused by an
unwise propaganda Plainly the people are
| going to be disappointed.
The theory apparently is that il makes
| little difference how bad that disappointment
| is once the transfer of the roads to the old
| operators is accomplished. All the same, a
| critical time is before the railroads and the
country. Every bit of public disappointment
is going to be turned to account.
Every fault, every failure of the railroads
under private ownership is going to be
seized upon In place of the old occasional
| anti railroad agitator, in place OF the La
| Follettes; and the Hoke Smiths of decade
or so ago, is n vast country wide organiza =
ton, the most perfect organization that ever
entered into American politics except the
Anti Saloon League, namely, the Plumb Plan
League. This league has money. 1t has
members everywhere 1t ha organizers il
the field all over the country 1t has ex-
tremely intelligent direction. Il there is @
dsal shortage the Plumb planners will point
out why If freight rates go up the league
will make an argument on that. In indus.
| trial centers the league will seek congress
men pledged to naturalization, and may
easily send many government ownership meI
to Congress. 1t is a critical time for tn,
railroads.