New-York tribune., 1920-02-05
Pell Opposes Rail
Ownership by U. S.
As Political Evil
Foresees Powerful Machine
in Interest of Dominant
Party Formed Out of Men
Who Remain in Service

Representative Herbert c. Pcll jr. Of
the 18th New York Congressional dis
trict made public yesterday n letter he
has sent to john Z. Gray. Of the Order
of Railway Conductors, in which he
sets forth his reasons for opposing
government ownership of railroads.
lie believes thnt government owner
shlH would bring politics into the ad-
ministartion Of the carriers; that it
would develop the management into n
bureaucracy or political machine. md
that it would introduce sectionaism
into expansion OF tho roads
Mr.. Polls letter was in reply to one
from Nv. Gray and the other Empire
state heads Of the railroad brother
hoods. ". c. Wish. of the engineers;
Thomas +. Ryan, OF the enginemen and
John iltzgibbons. Of the trainmcn
These four met at Albany on January
II and agreed to write to each of New
ork's Senators and Representatives.
directing attcntion TO the two year
extension government bll,' which is
favored by the brotherhoods' who are
opposed to the Cummins' bill and the
t,sch bill, respectively the Senate ana
House measures.
In his letter MIR Pcl said:
Almost all tho objections that haze
been made to private ownership have
bc"n based on errors of finance, not on
errors OF administration. A proper
regulation o. the financing of railroads )
Is a perfectly practical thing TO have,
without having governmental adminjs-
Nution Of tho road itself The elc-
mcntary principles of law and justice
car be applied properly to financing 2
road, but there are no such clear rules
that will apply to running it.
suppose the government takes over
ali the roads. There are about 2,OOO,-
600 men directly or indirectly employed
by the railroads. That raises imme-
diately the question of promotion We
start off with q staff, but some men will
so out. Others have to be promote /
to take their places. If you advance
your men by seniority, that simply
means automatically firing your good
men. IT man merely works up by the
length Of time he has served, obviously
the more capable man would be able to
rise more rapidly elsewhere. SO you
viii develop a rather incompetent hu-
vcaucracy. If, on the other hand, you
try to make any system Of selection,
you are bound to get a political ma
chine. The men Will owe their posi-
tons to the party in power, and to that
party will be their first allegiance
rather than the general pblic.
Under government ownership nu-
uestionably you would have a certain
amount of sectionalism, of which about
80 per cent would be absolutely honest.
For example. understand the railroad
needs of my district quite we'll.
would try TO meet them because I un-
derstand them. do not understand
the conditions in other parts Of the
country so we'll. and they do not appear
10 me as important. Now, the dominant
party viii of necessity serve those dis
tricts from which it comes. In that
way you will not get road constructed
primarily to serve the public as you
VIII under private ownership. Remem-
BIZ theat railroad viii only make
money if it serves the public, and
money will not come in unless the pub
]'c wants to use the road In pri-
vately run road, where profits is the
prlmar. incentive, real. genuine and
mediate public service will be neces-
sary concomitant to its successful man
ageWent.
There is one other phase which I
should like to consider. That is the
question Of great improvements. We
have in New York City the Pennsyi-
pelsive building. Another case is on
the Lackawanna, where an enormous
expense was incurred in stra ghtening
out part of the road a couple of
miles long. With our system Of elec-
tlcns every two years, it viii be I'M
ossible for any dmnstration to bur
den itself with improvements of this
sort. because each succeeding railroad
administrator Will have to show a rec
ord of low rates. The man who looks
pblic will not think Of the future"