Arizona republican., 1920-06-10
OFFIGIAL'S s STAND IN
 RAILROAD HEARING IS
 HEARTILY ENDORSED

Endorsing the position taken by F.. A. Jones, who represented the Arizona corporation commission at the recent railroad rate hearing in San Francisco, John F. Flynn, president of the Eco homie Society of America, has con Veyed his congratulations on the stand taken by the commission.
 MT. Flynn considers the Hong and sfrort haul policy as out of date as the 6ld. stage coach, and says so in his let ter to the commission, which follows Arizona State Railway Commission,
 Phoenix, Arizona.
 Gentlemen:
 Through brief press dispatch rela- tive to the recent railroad rate hear ing in San Francisco, learned of the protest of your honorable body against the continuation on the part of the railroads of the so-caIled .'long and short" haul clause. and I extend con- gratulations upon your effort to elimi- nate that policy.
 That is the first essential step in the work of taking the kinks" out of the transportation system of the country, both ship and rail. While such a policy might have been justified in the early days of transportation, with it's sparse settlement and minimum of local busi- ness, it cannot be justified today with car shortage all over the nation any more than could the old stage coach or even the saloon of that early date.
 The long and short haul policy is perdicated upon the theory of water competition, when as a matter of fact there is no water competition. ocean lake or river, notwithstanding the na- tion's expenditure of $400,OO0. GOO on the Panama canal and $2, ,000, 900, 900 upor merchant ships, which are now being given away, and most likely under terms favorable to the railroads.
 As the result of that policy of cater n x4-1,s d Iae sea, except as Q milk bottle the trans railroads are fig < uratively tied up in a knot, while the great interior states which produce tho wealth of the country are tiled to th' posts.1 Meantime the seaport cities through their chambers of commerce at the instance of the railroads. art shouting their heads off about flor eign trade" free port zones" and thu possibilities of the Orient" ignoring the fact that N$he best trade in th' world is at their back door, within 500-mile radius Of their much laudeC but unused seaports. They talk ses but ship by rail.
 The general tendency to look to tn distant and debatable field of trade al against the more fertile field at hom Is no where more pronounced than has been in the ocean gateway of tn great empire of the Southwestern bracing the states of Colorado, Nev Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona. north ern Mexico and Lower California.
 The Colorado river. the secont longest in the United States, one navigable for 1000 miles, is the mos valuable uncapitalized asset in tn United States. Between it's source Ii the melting snows of the Rocky noun tains and it's ocean outlet in the Gul of California, 1900 miles distant, wit its billions of horsepower, there Intent wealth enough nav off tb national debt of 30,000, ,e00,000 withou any direct axation-providing con gross will adjourn and stay adjourne' for ten years.
 If all Of the good print paper. in eluding ''undelivered" speeches printed in the Congressional Record, which ha been wasted in painting the ''pip dream possibilities of the Orient" coul be compressed into concrete blocks would furnish headgate for the Colo