The Connecticut labor news., 1921-08-12
Interstate Commerce
 A Commission Upsets \ Absurd Claim a II d A Throws Blame Right Back Where 1t Be-
 IA longs.
By Charles M. Kelley

D# bnS program for the railroads IS us Hypocrisy. It attempts to make the peo- Fple believe that 1t IS one thing, while 1t piS another and very different propos1- V tion. From the beginning deliberate attempt is being made to keep from the
 public the facts concerning the Pres1- dents plan for the relief of the railroads.
 It happens to be the Presidents plan sim
 ply because he has officially fathered 1t.
 As a matter of fact, 1t is no more hls plan than it is the plan of a million oth- Sers. It was formulated in Wall Street,
 1t was put before the people in propa-
 ganda that must have cost the roads
 pretty penny, and 1t was sprung at what Awas deemed to be the proper moment
 But 1t was not received with open arms.
 lit fell as flat as the proverbial pancake, and 1t can be put through Congress only lInder the whip and spur of the ad minis # tration.
 When Mir. Harding declared m his
 message to Congress that he was pre- x senting scheme by which the railroads
 could secure $5OOOO0,000 with no add
 ed expense no added liability no added
 tax burden" to the government, he in
 dulged i'll an amazing misStatement of
 act
 W Owe Government
 The facts polnt to just the opposite
 conclusion. The railroads owe the gov # ,ernment more than a billion dollars on
 account of capital expenditures made by
 the government for the benefit of the
 railroads during the period of the war.
 1The railroads have put up security to
 insure the repayment of about $30O,O v000 of this sum. That leaves the roads N Rowing the government $700,000,000 which 3Wis not secured.
 H It Is proposed that the railroads shall 3 3Rdeposit with the federal railroad admin ,astratlon securities to protect this 1ndebt-
 edness. The President advises Congress x Ito authorize the War Finance Corpora
 tion to purchase $500OO0,000 of these se- 4 curities from the railroad administration This would enable the railroad admins @ tration to pay that sum for the railroads gin settlement of what the government
 owes the roads because of so-called "un-
 der maintenance" during the war. The war finance corporation is a part of the government. To secure money
 with which to purchase railroad securi- \ Hies it must dispose of its own securities. 8M That increases the national debt. The President cannot make 1t appear other x Nwise. When he declared that there 4 HdVould be no additional liability" he 4 Bpoke without knowledge of the facts br he deliberately misstated them. 4 Everybody is free to draw his own con- \ #clusions. .&8 Fraud Upon Public The government IS going into this deal i with full appreciation of its fraud upon ' H the public It dare not meet the issue fairly and squarely. It camoufages, it sidesteps, 1t dissembles, 1t lies. It is N Bperhaps the most shameful exhibition of fl hypocrisy that has been witnessed in many year.
 {& The administration, or the interests That rule it, have the power to put this deal through. The program is to give ft precedence over legislation that might &conceivably be in the general public in # terest. The whole power of govern
 ment is to be exerted to get to the rail roads half billion dollars, which in turn IS to go to bankers, gamblers and specu- lators, to dividends and to other purposes that are helpful only to very special and exceedingly small groups.
 The public may as well reconcile itself Ito the situation, for there IS no help for lit. It should be prepared for this and x many similar transactions. To say that x the interests of the whole public are f getting the least attention at Washington 4 would be a gross eXaggeratlon. Nor N malcy means a return to the good old || days when special and crooked interests | got exactly what they demanded, with | M out qquestion, without delay and without any regard for what the public may think about it. The public may be damned for M all Congress cares or the administration Y or anybody else here in authority cares
 Delays Settlement
 The only consideration that the aver E age man gets out of he affairs is thai M the railroad problem is not sett1ed-no N by long shot. These five hundred " millions will go as have gone other N thousands of millions that have been di N verted from the public treasury into the ! eofers of the bankers. It will permit M the railroads to resume for time tht M riotous, wasteful and criminal methods
 that were in order during the period O. < government guaranty, but the sum, large as 1t is, won't go far in meeting the de XVI mands of the greedy interests that art smacking their lips in prospect of en riching themselves at the cost of th
 people.
 The railroads will never repay thei
 loans, and it never was intended tha
 they should. The game is to get a
 much as they can, keep all they get, anc
 delay the final and logical solution O
 this whole question owner
 ship-as long as possible.
 How any sane man can support ant
 defend private management in the ligh
 of recent developments, is incomprehen
 sible. Surely, the effect of propagand
 must soon wear off, and then the Ameri
 can people will awaken with the cracking
 head and the dark brown taste of the da
 after. And they will be in a pesky
 cantankerous mood, that will no longe
 tolerate the things that are now bein,
 done by politicians wholly unconsciou
 that there must inevitably be day o
 reckoning.
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