Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1919-06-21
new RAIL PLANS
ON SOUND BASIS
Congress Determined to Make
Certain Future Growth of
Transportation Facilities.
PLANS AGREE ON PRINCIPLES.
Return of Roads to Owners With
Assurance Of Adequate
Revenues.
PLANS AGREE ON PRINCIPLES.

]
lens before the new Congress is get
ting the railroads back on peace
basis. These 100000 miles of steel
| highways were taken over by the Gov
eminent as an indispensable arm of
the national defense; but now that
their war service is over, there is a
| countrywide demand that the Gov
eminent restore them to their owners
to be operated on normal American
| business standards of efficiency.
| But, as has been pointed out by
President Wilson as well as by many
men in public life who have given
this subject years of careful study,
it is not enough simply to say to the
railroad companies, Take these rail-
roads and give the country the best
transportation service that money and
brains can provide"
Old Laws obstruct Growth.
The President recently said that 1t
would be serious mistake to return
| to the old conditions of railroad regu-
lation without reforming the anti
| quated laws that were Obstructing the
free development Of transportation ia
cilities. The Director General of Rail-
roads has recently made an inspection
| trip from coast to coast, and he has
been telling the people that the time
| has now come to put the railroads on
sound foundation.
The plans for a better system of
national control of railroads are as
varied as were the plans for banking
| and currency reform when Congress
received a mandate from the people
| to provide insurance against financial
| panics The public now demands in
surance against a breakdown of rail-
| road transportation, and the new Con-
gress is undertaking this work as sec
ondary only to insurance against in
| ternational warfare. Congress solved
| the banking problem seven years ago
| as non-partisan issue, in which all
| the people had a common interest, and
| Congress evidently is tackling the
railroad problem with the same spirit.
While the many plans that have
| been proposed differ in the methods
to be adopted in reaching the desired
| goal, it has been pointed out by Sena-
| tor Cummins of Iowa that all these
| plans have really very much in com
mon---so much so that he is confident
that Congress will have little difficulty
in framing a bill that will meet with
popular approval, and that will take
the railroad question out of politics
for many years to come.
Many Plans With One Aim.
The Iowa Senator has command
ing position in this Congress because he
is the ranking member of the Interstate
Commerce Committee of the United
States Senate, and it is i'm this com
mittee that the new railroad bill will
take final form. In an address before
national meeting of business men
ut st. Louis Senator Cummins stated
that since the close of the war fully
thirty complete plans for new railroad
legislation had been submitted to him
by business men, economists. bankers
railroad officials and owners, Govern
ment officials, railroad workers and
| just plain citizens
The basic principles upon which all
of these plans, with one exception
agree are as follows:
I. Private operation 10 more eff
eient and more economical than
Government operation, and the
public interest will therefore be
served by return Of the roads to
private management.
2. To make certain that new
capital will be attracted to the
expansion Of railroad facilities,
there ought to be greater certain.
ty that a fair return will be earn
ed on the investment.
8. The merging Of weak and
strong roads into large competing
systems should be encouraged.
The making Of formula to pro
vide a fair return on railroad capital
seems likely to be the phase of the
problem most thoroughly debated il
| Congress. The Director General has
been urging that the Government,
ought to guarantees certain return
Leading bankers, especially some OF
the International bankers in Wal
street, who have in the past marketed
many hundreds Of millions of railroad
securities, also look favorably on the
suggestion of Government guaran
tee. which will make it easier to sci
new securities, and will also stabilize
the market for the old bonds anG
| stocks.
Government Guarantee Opposed.
; But the proposal that the Govern
i Aent shall guarantee the interest AMI
dividends Oh private capital invested
In railroads will undoubtedly NEE
with very vigorous opposition in man!
quarters Even railroad executives
who might be supposed to take kind!
to the idea Of Government guarantee,
| against failure, have frankly stated
that they do not want 1t, because the.
believe 1t Is un-Amerlcan in principle
| xvnnlI tarI 10 loccon ffi.iancy an,