The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-13
BROTHERHOODSLAY THEIR CORRUPTION CHARGES BEFORE !. HOUSE COMMITTEE
Systematic Plundering by Financial Interests and H. legal Holding of Millions
 of Acres Public Lands
 By Roads Included
By Associated Press

Washington, August 12. The railroad brotherhoods, through their counsel, Glenn E. Plumb, today laid before the House interstate commerce committee their charges of cor ruption in the management of the railroads under private control. The charges, an- nounced as forthcoming a J week ago, were that many of \ the great railway systems had \ been plundere dsystematically by the financial interests and that the railroads illegally held millions facres of publi; lands.
 Eighteen representative railroads of She country, the brotherhood attorney ] asserted, issued stock aggregatng | S450,414,0o6 betwe cen 1900 and 1910 as bonuses and paid millions of dollars VI in dividends on these bonuses. These \ same railroads he further charged. Nwere controlled i'll whole in part I by the Morgan interests, the Roeke- 1eiler interests and the Gould inter \ ests.''
 Coupled with the charges which \ came just before the House commit fee closed it's hearings on organized 4 fabor's bill for elimination of private 4 capital from railroad ownership, was
 
 fl make thorough investigation of the .l matter so that the American people lynay Know to what extent it is sought to subject them to exploitation under the other plans" proposed for future disposition of the railroads.
 COMMITTEE COURSE UNKNOWN There was no intimation as to what \ course the committee might take in regard to the request for investiga Ation. Chairman 5sch, in half dozen Sauestions, indicated that to go into the ! charges would be like travelling over old ground as they had been threshed put long ago. Plumb told the com rnittee that he either had the evidence t1 support every charge or knew where it could be obtained. Presentation of tiFaa cha-ees saopap gently fai1ed to arouse ntuch interest among members, as no one except the chairman sought light through examination of the witness
 A E. Cafretson. former head of the Order of Railway Conductors closing his statement begun Monday declared with utmost frankness that if a vote were taken today the country probably would reject organized labor's plan. He explained, however. that this would be due to general suspicion against new things, and he predicted that it would be endorsed and adopted in the not distant future.
 The opinion was expressed by MT. GSsrretson that there had been no fair test of government operation of rail roads, because the railroads since be- ing taken over had been operated by officials who were opposed to govern 5ment ownership and wanted to demon strate that it was not best for the country.
 HEARINGS CONCLUDED
 With the filing of Plumb's charges the committee concluded hearings on his plan for public ownership and em- ploye operation of the railroads, and will take up later the plans to be of fered by security holders and railway executives. both of which, labor off eials have testified. are more radical than that framed by Mir. Plumb and endorsed by the brotherhoods It prob ably will be a month before the com
 
 Plumbs statement to the committee embraced il separate charges. The first was that the nearly completed survey of the entire transportation sys tenn contained in the reports of the valuation division of the interstate commerce commission showed that the actual cost of reproduction new, was but 50 per cent of the aggregate prop erty accounts of the railroads
 Another charge was that where the cost of reproduction new approximated in amount the investment account as stated to the commission by the car rier it would be found in most in- stances that this. approximation was because cash surplus earnings had ''been expunged on or ploughed into, the property in such way that the ac- tual cash investment including the sur plus earnings, has brought the level of cost of reproduction new up to the property investment account"
 Investigation of a recent statement by President Underwood of the Erie railroad, that payroll expenses of the railroads had been increased under federal control to build up a political machine, would show, Plumb said, that if there had been wastefulness of money in swelling payrolls. it has been at the instance of railway man agement to make the expense account under government control appear sx- travagant and wastefuL"
 ROADS WERE DEPLETED
 Plumb also charged that when the roads were taken over by the govern ment they were in such depleted condi- ton as to maintenance and repairs that it had required hundreds of millions of dollars advanced by the government to place them in effective operating condition"
 Another charge was that in making the expenditures the railroads, "oper- ated and controlled by men under the influence of Wall street directorates," spent vast sums in unusual expendi-
 (Continued on Page Two.)