The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
EREDEKIo }. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington. D. Q.
ADVOCATEs RAILROAD HOLIDAY

/ neGQ nOllQdy WHICH, 1OL a
period of five years or more. they
ment regulation, has provoked re-
| newed discussion of the whole ques-
] ton of railroad cperation.
4 The swing Of the pendulum back
toward a consideration of relaxed rail-
road regulation is believed to mark
one of the cycles of development pc
culiarly characteristic of American
progress A curious coincidence Is
that Glen Plumb, the author of the
| Plumb Plan, constituting the farthest
swing of the pendulum in the direc-
ton of radicalism, is reported to be
on his death bed. following pro-
! longed illness. Mr.. Plumb's health is
reported to be so impaired that, even
tho he might recover from his pres
ent illness. he could not take up the
| leadership of transportation reform
again. His absence from his field
would remove one of the strongest
opponents to relaxed railroad regula-
ton in the country.
Mr.. Mellon based his suggestions
for a railroad holiday on the theory
that the carriers could work out OF
their present financial dlfflcuIties
more speedily l. they were free of the
interference of such bodies as the
interstate commerce commission. Mr..
Mellon believes that if the railroads
were permitted to operate independ-
entity, they would thru the force of
where the public would derive much
benefit. The secretary points out that
in the days before regulation, ratios
for transportation Of freight and pas
senger fares were much lower than
now and that the history of railroad
rate regulation in the United States
has been a history of progressively in
crea sing rates.
Mr.. Melons suggestion has been
received with much interest, and 1t
seems likely that whole new crop
of proposals for railroad relief will
spring up in its wake. These may de-
velop into "a new general investigation
of the transportation situation by
congressional committee
Opposes Too Much Regulation.
Some members of the interstate
commerce commission have shown
leanings toward the belief that too
much regulation is not good for the
railroads and not good for the public.
Mark Potter, a member of the COM
mission, in recent opinions in cases be-
fore that body, has expressed off,
cially the view that the commission ar
rogates to itself powers too sweeping
and invades the field of management
of the railroads, whereas, under the
law, it should restrict its activities to
q detached and impersonal judging or
right and wrong in railroad cases,
within the meaning Of the act to reg
ulate commerce.
The first dissent from the practice
which in recent years has grown up of
regulating the railroads as tho they
were owned by the commissions was
expressed by the late Commissioner
Clements in the Second Five Per Cent
case. In that case the railroads asked
for a rate increase, claiming that they
could not make money unless they re-
ceived higher rates The commission
agreed with this view and granted the
increase, but Commissioner Clements
dissented from the majority opinion
and declared that If all railroad had
to do to get a rate increase was to
proved that it needed the money, the
burden of proof of why an increase
should be granted, which is placed by
the statute on the railroad, had be-
come light and easy to carry.
1t was the opinion of Commissioner
Clements that the abstract business or
a specific charge for carrying given
commodity a certain distance should
be the measure of regulation and that
the commission had no legal right to
give or withhold a rate increase on
the basis of whether or not the car
riers needed the money. This he re-
garded as alien to the com mission
function and an assumption of a man
agerial duty.
The commissioner stood practically
alone then but since his time-that
is, in the last five or six years-others
have taken practically the same view.
Mr.. Mellon has crystallized it in his
apnOrlSJlc statement LndL the remedy
is a railroad holiday.
1t is argued that under a relaxed
regulation the public would get meas
ureably better service because each
railroad would be on its mettle not
only to cut rates lower than its COM
petitors but to give such service that
its facilities would be preferred. 1t
is claimed that when railroad opera
ton is carried on in a network of
regulations and rules which dictate to
a ~ffra1lxy function of
management. great, progressive execu-
tives and alert, capable railroad work.
ers are not attracted to the profess
sion.
President Underwood of the Erie
railroad tells of an experience of his
in the bitterly cold winter of 1917-1S
which interfered SO seriously with
the movement of trains. Engines
were frozen in the yards, cars We're
frozen to the tracks and snowdrifts
blocked the tracks to a point where.
on some of the worst days, traffic
practically was suspended Mr.. I'm
derwood, who has been in railroad
service for many years, met at one of
had been working all his life on rail-
roads. Mr.. Underwood had known
him for thirty or forty years.
Steel Cars and Wooden Men.
Greeting the aged worker, the rail-
road president asked him to explain
why railroads had so much difficulty
in these times. He pointed out that
a quarter of a century ago winters
were just as cold but that traffic never
was suspended and the trains were
kept moving in all weather. The old
yardman answered THE reason is that
now we have steel cars and wooden
men but in the old days we had
wooden cars and men of steel"
This is n favorite theme of Fair
fax Harrison, president of the South
ern railway, who. at the termination
of federal control introduced econ
omies in operation and increased ef-
ficiency TO an extent which overcame
the operating deficit 1t is his opinion
that esprit de corps is a. necessary to
operate a railroad as to win a battle
and that such spirit is difficult to
stimulate under treadmil1 conditions Of
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