Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-03-28
CuMMINS FAVORS STRICT CONTROL
 BY GOVERNMENT
Believes Railroads Should Be Operated By Private
 Concerns, However.

Des Moines, Ia, March 27.-Private operation of railroads under strict est government control' was advo- cated by Albert B. Cummins. Iowa's senior United States senator, in ad- dress to a joint session of the state |, legislature this afternoon.
 MT. Cummins, who was ranking the Republican member of the Senate in- terstate commerce committee in the last congress enumerated three prin- cipleI previously cited by him. which he thought should be accepted in the enactment of any fundamental legis- lation.' They are: z~'.-
 'First--the return upon the capi- tai invested in railways should be made certain through a government undertaking or guarantee"
 'Second--the railways should. be consolidated into comparatively few systems-nOt more than 1S."
 'Third-the railways should ioe operated by private corporations or ganAed under act of Congress"
 The senator declared the readjust- ment of the relations between the government and the railroads is by far the most important and most diff ficult of the many problems of re- construction, with the possible exsep- ton of the League of Nations. Is Goyernmnet Function. Railways as governmental function" :" he continued. Whether the govern, ment can best perform this function he continued. Whether the govern ment can best perform this function through the government ownership the instrumentalities of private cor pcrations under public control, is entirely matter of sound judgment and wise discretion" The speaker cited figures to show the disparity in the earning capacity of the various railroads" during 1915- 16-17, ranging from operation at loss to net operating income of mere than ten per cent upon the invest ! me1lt account.
 ''To increase rates so these weak roads, carrying about p per cent of the country's traffic will become self sustaining and able to finance them- selves," he continued would give to the roads which do 75 per cent o1 the business revenue winch the com- monest sense of justice forbids FavorS Merger.
 The weak roads must be merged with the strongest ones into com petitive systems which can endure upon substantially even terms. I an net i'll favor of regional systems, fol we must at all hazard perpetuatt competition in service and with, say eighteen systems, experts agree com petition would be even more keel than when the government assuma( control. Tt is possible to take railway cor
 porations already in existence ant
 work out the plan with them, out m,
 own conviction that the safer ant better method is to put each of thes, consolidated systems in the hands o
 a federal corporation
 Referring to his first ''prnciple, Senator Cummins said the return o
 capital invested should be guarantee.
 ty the government as Git is highl,
 desirable to remove for all time tin
 temoraliZing, corrupting struggle be ,. tween the owners and representative
 of railway property and the public
 especially that part ot the public di
 rectly interested Il freight and mes
 senger charges: that the honest in
 vestment in railway properties is CT,
 titled to protection and the public i
 entitled to fair treatment. It is i'm
 possible to conceive of any revision
 of the law that will accomplish thes
 things without the eliminaton of th
 controversy relating othe return up on capital.
 } Private Operations Best. ''The return to the third principl
 that railroads should be operate, by private corporations rather thai
 by the government-the senator sai, he favored this because ''the govern ; ment cannot cperate the railroads } either economically of efficiently" "lt costs the government more t, ds any given thing ill country lik, ours, where every man is sovereign than it costs any body else to do tn,
 same thing" he continued. 9Th,
 history of every enterprise of busi
 ness character conducted by the gov
 erament proves all and a great dea
 more than the statement have jus
 made. disparage no one and i'm pugn no mans irte@ritv What have said iI not only the truth, but i \iS as natural as life itself"