The Connecticut labor press., 1920-12-18
IS EVERY RIGHT
 OF THE PEOPLE
 TO BE SACRIFICED
Weekly Letter of Plumb Plan League Asks Pertinent Cues
 tion Concerning Railroads.
There Is No Doubt About What Is in Store for the Unions,
 Apparently.
By CHARLES M. KELLEY.

on tne1r real and hCt1tlOuS Capltal1Za- t;ons? These are questions that some statesmen at Washington are seriously asking, and which every prudent Citi- zen of the country should also be ask ing. And they should also insist that there be an immediate and convincing reply free from legal hair-splitting and political hodge-pOdge.
 When Congress subsidized the rail roads from the public treasury 1t estab- hshed a dangerous precedent, the full purport of which has not been appre- hended by many citizens. By this act the government has authorized and en- Couraged reckless mismanagement, waste and graft free of the natural pen alties that they invite. It freed cor porationS of ordinary business hazards and guaranteed them profits without the necessity of striving for them or the condition precedent of deserving them. It set the railroads apart in an exclusive class, where they are permitted to eX- ploit the people without fear of COnse- quences. It perverted the natural func- tions of government, which should have to do with human beings, into bonding agencies for investors Ill railroad shares. It conferred sovereign powers upon private corporations and made 105,000O00 unwilling subjects to pow CT created by the state but grown great CT than its creator.
 The American people lost much when the Cummins-EsCh bill was writ ten into the statute books. But they are going to lose a great deal more, if the railroad managers plans do not mis- carry. They are going to lose the last vestige of state rights. For the trans portation bill, which is a Pandora's box of iniquity and economic and social problems, has opened anew COntrO- versy that has waged with more or less bitterness over a period of three quarters of a century.
 When the Supreme Court rendered the Dred Scott decision 1t placed pro made long, bloody war inevitable. But that war did not settle the question. The railroads are going to the Supreme Court with demand that the states be enj oined from interfering with the rates established by the Interstate Commerce Commission, to the end that the guaran- teed income assured them by the tram sportation bill shall be certain and un interrupted.
 Seventeen states have held to the theory that they retain rights that the federal government must respect. The Interstate Commerce Commission holds a contrary view, and so do the rail roads. The states, they argue, have no rights that transcend the rights of the railroads to collect the guarantee that Congress has gi given them.
 In writing the railroad bill the cor poration attorneys aimed at centraliza- ton of regulatory power in Washing ton They preferred to deal with Con- gross. which Is less responsive to public will than state legislatures. They sought to curtail the authority of State utility commissions, which are more closely watched and, therefore, less likely to disregard the public welfare when dealing with questions of rates and railroad practices.
 A majority of the commonwealths have accepted this position and have approved the federal rates without question. But a fighting minority is standing out for state rights, and the question must go to the courts for re- view. What the final decision will be Is not a subject for speculation. It may be stated, however, that in recent issues where property rights cont1icted with human rights the decision has invaria- ply favored property.
 GUARANTEE IS PROVIDED
 The position taken by the railroads and the Interstate Commerce Commits sion sets at rest for all time the ques- tion whether Congress did or did not intend to guarantee railroad dividends. Thoes who advocated the transpOrta- ton bill carefully explained to outraged constituencies during the recent cam paign that nothing could have been farther from their thought than to guarantee the railroads anything. But the Interstate Commerce Commission interprets the bill as mandate to pro- vide revenue that will permit the rail roads to pay dividends, and the rail roads insist that they will be satisfied with nothing less. State rights or no state rights, they must have their six per cent. Congress has so declared and the courts must so rule.
 In an order directed to the Public Service Commission of Illinois and New Dork the commission declares that the plain intent of the act was to guaran- tee a certain return to the railroads, and that if the several states do not accept rates established this result will be defeated. If the courts should re- spect the right of the states to inter fere with this arrangement, it would be necessary for the Interstate Commerce Commission to again initiate and adjust rates that the total yield would be sui fcient to meet dividend requirements
 It is important that these facts be clearly established, for 1t Is not con- ceivab1e that the American people, tol- erant as they are, will Complacently accept situation so outrageous Ill its application and so dangerous in its i'm plications. If the railroads are to be guaranteed an inCOSle quite without re- gard to their ability to earn it, If serv- = ice is to be charged for not on a basis of what 1t is worth, but on what the railroads demand, then our whole sys- tenn of industry is due for an over hauling.
 The railroad problem has not been solved and it will not be solved until the rights of the public are given due consideration. Congress in its treatment of this question has given thought sole ly to the railroads. They have been given everything they demanded. The public was ignored as not worthy of attention But Congress has not i'll any measure corrected the evils of half a century of mismanagement, graft and waste, and it cannot, by increasing rates, or guaranteeing dividends, set aside economic laws that are palying ducks and drakes with their well-in- tended plans. Railroad income is still inadequate, and higher rates will, by curtailing commerce, further reduce it. Some railroad presidents realize this, if Congress does not, and that explains