The Carlisle independent., 1920-12-23
suggestions that will have general applicability.
 Strengthening Out The Snarls

Strengthening Out The Snarls
 The War Labor Board assumed to raise rates of pay for street ailway employees. It also fixed the price of material and equipment which the companies had to pay-and in turn it fixed" the companies, since it added all these burdens to their conditions, but could not increase the sources of their revenue. The President and the Secretary of the Treasury and all the rest of the high government off cials wrote eloquent appeals in behalf of higher street car fares. Finally the President appointd the Federal Electric Railways Commission, which made a very exhaustive study of theh electric railway industry, and reom- mended basic plan for the reestab- lishment of the street railway indus try throughout the United States. The present referendum of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States seeks to further establish these basic ideas by bringing them home to the local communities. The Com mittee report points out that among the problems affected by local trans portation systems is the housing sit uation. It says: "The question is not only how to obtain housino but how to utilize it, and utilization in every instance turns upon the facilities for local transportation. To house, either a new or an old. access to an efficient railway is quite as essential for practical purposes, as sewer con- nections and a water supply It is hard to gainsay these established facts.
 What the Chamber Proposes
 In the eferendum now b eing sub | mitted to the businss organizations of the country through the Chamber of Commerce of the United States eight questions are to be voted upon Af- ter each question there is a space in- dicating the local opinion, favoring or opposing the suggestions. These sug- gestions, which have come down the long official route, propound the fol- lowing questions, stated in the affirm ative, i-e.:
 l Existing traction facilities should be. conserved.
 II "The attitude now taken to- ward street railway problems shoa l be based upon the present and future needs of the community.
 Ill "The attitude which is taken toward street railway problems should contemplate private ownership and operation.
 " Regulation should every where be instituted that will prompt ly follow changes in the situation of the companies rndering services of local transportation.
 V Provision should be made agaisst the consequences of unfair competition.
 VI Ali burdens unrelated to the service should be removed from street railways.
 VII Official responsibility should be definitely fixed for the application = regulation.
 VIII Each company should seek to have available for the public at all times the facts as to the results of operation and should have resident lesp pcnsible executives wholly conver- sant with local requirements"
 Reconstruction Of Rail Transportation Congress will doubtless be called upon to strengthen the transportation act, but in doing so it will find itself at big advantage, since the relation between the public and the transpor- tation lines were clearly defined in the. Cummins-E -Esch measure. Mr. Al fred P. Thom, counsel of the Associa- tion of Railway Executives, traces the evolution of government regula- tion up to the passage of the law of | 1920. This law, he says, "has it's l of of the relationship of government to the instrumentality of the trans portation which it undertakes to reg ! ulate.' To MT. Thorn adds: "The 1 abandonment of the old and mistaken view that the responsibility of govern | ment, when it undertakes to regulate the business of transportation, is full ly performed when 1t punishes it's misdeeds and restricts it's activities and opportunities, and the adoption of the new conception that the Gov ernment's responsibility in regulation must extend to and embrace proper encouragement and protection, makes l a new era in our legislative history and rises to the dignity of an eco homie triumph of popular govern ment.
 1t furnishes new assurance and gives fresh courage and hope to .hose who believe in the good sense and the spirit of wisdom and statesmanship which reside in the masses of the people and which will ultimately man. ifest themselves in the system of laws evolved out of public opinion
 The Water Power Commission There are about one hundred ap- plications for licenses for water pow CT projects on file with the Federal Water Power Commission, established by the passage of the Water Power act, rushed through in the closing hours of the last session of Congress and signed by President Wilson after 1 1t was thought that the time limit had expired, and following howl of protest by business and industrial leaders. But before any of the pro- Jects can be started it will be neces- sary for Congress to make an appro- priation of S500,000 to enable Com