Omaha daily bee., 1920-01-17
Mr.. Hines and the Railroads
From the New York Times.
doctor to sick railroads, redr

! A. doctor to sick railroads reduced to ar
anaemic condition by government management
| Director General Hines is specialist whe
seems to give everybody the blues, officers. IN
vestors shippers, consumers. He diagnoses
dolefully and prescribes without hope. The pa
tients are not in extremis, and with the righ1
| kind. of treatment they might soon be on theil
| feet enjoying fairly good health. 1t cannot b
| said that they were hale and hearty when the
| government took charge of them, but under
| its treatment they have grown steadily worse
| and now need tonic which only congress can
supply Mr. Hines in his address before the
| Bar Association of New York proposed pre-
| scription which in some respects was not un'
| like DR.. Plumb's. That is to say. Mr.. Hines
| approved of plan to have the public and labor
as we'll as cap;tal manage the railroads. In the
working out of this theory labor would become
| the real manager, as the politicians who con.
troled the public's representation would side
with labor against capital, and the result would
ultimately be government ownership, which the
people, with sad experience of government
| management do not want. There can be lit
tie interest in the talk about rates high enough
to insure reasonable return and provide re.
serves for lean years if labor, the public" and
capital are to operate the railroads
Mr.. Hines declares that if his prescription
is not taken the result will be progressively
disappointing" and in few years the public
will demand radically different plan" that
probably will not stop short of outright gov
ernrnent ownership" It is curious that he can
not see that his trpartite plan would precipitate
government ownership. Labor and its allies,
the politicians, would see to that. The direc-
tor general says the public would have to pay
an expensive price for private management after
March l. on account of increased rates and in
adequate equipment. The public have paid
dearly for government management in poor and
exasperating service, and they are willing to
pay a just price for good service under private
management. They believe that under govern
nent ownership they would pay the highest
price of all in taxation and have the worst of
all service. As to adequate equipment, the rail-
roads must have it. They have not been able
to get money advances for it from Director
General Hines, and equity requires that con-
gress shall include relief in its legislation.
There may be two opinions about Mr..
Hines assertion that under federal control the
existing equipment has worn better and gone
further than would have been the case under
the old form Of private management" The
fact, of course, is that the railroads have had
to do their best with the equipment allowed
them but their officers have not been mute un-
der the affection. There cannot be two opin-
ions, however, about the director generals
statement that deficits have not been due to
excessive costs" There might be something
in this view if the heavy increases in wages
granted by the government were eliminated
but that cannot be done in any calculation of
railroad conditions. The deficits he attributes.
strangely enough, to the fact that "the prices
charged railroad transportation have not been
increased in keeping with the increase in prices
of commodities. That was the governments
responsibility, and it is singular that Mr. Hines
should calculate that if the rates put into effect
in June, 1918, had been declared six months
earlier there would have been surplus instead
of a deficit for some of the railroads. He is
always inclined to give the government credit
for the best intentions and to deplore condi-
tions that embarrassed it. In the end he gives
unified control" certificate of merit and finds
nothing good in the prospect of private owner
ship. Under better economic conditions he feels
that government management would have been
financial success. 1t is poor rule that won't
work both ways