The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-26
RAILROAD LEGISLATION.

| 1t is announced from Washington
4hat the senate committee on inter-
state commerce at last has taken up in
earnest the consideration OF the rail-
road problem with view to framing
/ legislation under which the roads can
| be returned to their owners Senator
Cummins, chairman of the committee,
has said that he hopes to have a rail-
road bill ready for submission to con-
gress in about a month.
Practically every plan of railroad
legislation so far proposed includes
the continued existence of the inter-
state commerce commission. Cold
shivers may well run up and down the
backs of railway owners, managers
and shippers. says Investment News. at
the talk of re-enthroning the inter
state commerce commission.
| It was the interstate commerce COM
mission, it points out, which started
the national transportation fizzle. 1t
failed to measure up in any particular
to the great responsibility which was
| placed upon it-responsibi1ity to the
, public dependent upon the railroads as
lacked the knowledge to- Judge the
needs of the railroads. 1t lacked the
vision to see what, under its practice
of government policy. was ahead OF
the roads and of the country. 1t
lacked the courage, when the conse-
quences of its timorous and niGgardly
rate making were imminent. to try to
undo the mischief it had done.
/ When the crucial test came with the
war the American railway system
thanks to the interstate commerce
commission, was ready to collapse
government operation surely and
swiftly did the rest
Today, the American railway system
is, from the point of view of service
a grotesque makeshift. From the
fpoint of view of investors it is a finan-
view of the United States treasury 1t Is
a colossal deficit breeder. From the
point of view of the taxpaying public
it is a staggering burden. To tell tbs
railway shareholders. the railway
managers and the American people
that the roads should get more treat.
ment by the interstate commerce com.
mission, therefore. is like offering t.
cure sick man by feeding him dope
J The News suggests as substitut,
for the commission secretary O
: transportation. arguing as follows:
As the secretary of the navy will
fight with congress, will fight will
anybody. to get for his navy what 4
needs, and as the secretary of war viii
fight likewise to get for his army wha
1t needs. so would a secretary of trans
portation fight to get for the railroads
what they need. 1t is hardly to be ex
pected, however. that a secretary O.
transportation would have or properl,
could have the power to make rail
way rates at his own will Yet some
body must make the rates. If con
gress should create both a secretary O.
transportation and a new and compe
, tent rate making authority this Nigh
be a solution. Yet one shudders Il
think the new one might be only a du
. plicate of the old commission.
: Congress can offer something bet
ter. for there Is no doubt that the las
thing the long suffering railroads anC
l the heavily burdened American peopl
, want to see Is the old interstate com
merce commission, or anything lik
the old interstate commerce commits
sion, back in the power and the OPP
5 portunity to repeat the immeasurabl
harm from which the roads and tn
nation have so terribly suffered.