New-York tribune., 1920-03-15
Rail Owners ,
Act to Curb
Future Errors
Government Control Seen
as Inevitable Unless
Policies Meet Approval
of People as a Whole
Rates a Vital Question
Directors and Shipping
Interests to Have Repre-
sentatiOn i'm Conferences

Establishment Of committee Of
railroad directors and another repre-,
senting the largest shipping organiza-
tions of the country to confer with
committees Of the National Associa
tion Of Owners Of Railroad Securities
to prevent further errors" in railroad
policies (Which will inevitably lead tc
government ownership" was recon.
mended in report adopted by the gov
erning committees of the association
made public yesterday.
S. Davies Warfield, the association's
president, pointed out in the report tina,
the questions at issue "are altogether
too farreaching and vital to the peo,
pie as whole to permit Of errors ir
judgment between the owners and oper.
ating executives; that each have theil
proper place in the settlement of these
questions and that the public will not
stand for any further mistakes on the
part of the railroads.
Suggestions Adopted
The suggestions for cooperation EN-
bodied in Mr.. Warfeld's report were
unanim ously adopted at a largely at
tended meeting of bankers and life in.
surance presidents from all parts Of the
Cnlteu olAteS.
They provide that the committee OF
member from each board of Class
railroads shall name smaller commit
tee Of not more than twenty directors
who in turn shall appoint sub-com
mttee Of seven, the members of al
committees to be selected geographi-
cally.
To this committee, it is suggested
shall be- referred "the questions OF
policy, both public and legislative, with
which the railroads will have to deal
also matters of legislative financia
policy in respect to the railroads as 4
whole"
Any action taken jointly by the com
mittee Of railroad directors and the
committee representing the securities
holders is to be binding on both, it
was stipulated
"The organization known as the
American Railroad Association, with
headquarters in Chicago and now main
tanned by the railroads." the statemen,
said, "presents the means Of solving
the technical problems that arise from
time to time and which affect all the
railroads and in the disposition OF
which all the railroads could concur
and such matters may be disposed OF
DV that ASSOCIATION.
Law Must Be Obeyed
Mr.. Warfeld gave in detail the cir
cum stances under which the owners ap-
preached the return of the railroads
and the necessities for changing the
"organic law to admit of rates suffi-
cient to allow for the great discrep-
ancies in earnings between the various
railroads and to reestablish railroad
credit"
Many of these necessities, he pointed
out, are not operating matters and
"should not be left to the decision of
any organization of purely operating
executives"
Abiding to the act recently passed
by Congress, the report said:
Few statutes have been enacted by
Congress upon the successful admins
tration of which so much depends and
with results so far-reaching. Private
ownership and operation of the rail
transportation system of the country
is at stake.
"Whatever it's defects. no other coun-
try has prospered as this has under
the private operation Of its railroads.
Yet government ownership may result,
although the country is overwhelm-
ingly opposed to it from failure to
carry out the intent and purposes OF
this law"
The administration of this act, the
report nointed out, "affects every in
terest, @hether the owners of railroad
securities or business enterprise''
Car Service Serious
Referring to the associations first
-,