The Alaska daily empire., 1922-02-25
HOOVER ON THE RAILROADS.

At recent hearing before the Interstate Col Commission, Secretary of Commerce. Herbert Hoover rejected untenable the idea that the ra roads of the nation would again be in po tion to pay interest their actual valuation cal talization and held that under normal circumstanc railroad securities would prove to be the very bf of investment attractions Railroads generally, argued had been condemned without sufficient re account of the misdeeds of few unscrupuio promoters and opponents of high finance. He devoted much of his attention to the rel tion between prosperity for the railroads and pro perity for the industries of the nation a who He said in part
 It to vital that the railways greatest industry should propose courageous program of broad vision better ments and if necessary the Government should consider giving the of its super for credit It would not cost the taxpayer a cent to give the Government guarantee equipment trusts upon the primary respon- sibty of the railways, the proceeds to be devoted entirely to improvements and equip 
 This is proposal to take money from the taxpayer. It is proposal to him from paying treble the amount of his guar antee in profteering and losses.
 It will render reduction of rates earlier, for unless something is done the improve ments will have to be paid years out of increased rates Nor would lose a cent upon the guarantee, for if American
 
 borrowings let throw up hands and prepare for second Russia
 A real program of construction would in its various ramifcations give relief to five or SIX hundred thousand of our unemployed. It would enable added numbers to in- crease their standard of living, and thus give increased market to the produce of farm CTS Our farmers who look to foreign kets for their surplus should stop to con- sider that our home consumption of meat decreased nearly pounds per capita in 1921, mostly owing to the unemployment and that if this decrease could be overcome it would be worth more than 35 per cent. increase in exports
 We talk glibly of giving billions of credits to foreign countries, to increase farm exports. l wish to say with all responsi- b1lty for the statement, that billion dol lars spent upon American railways will give more employment to people, ad- vance to our industry, assistance to our farmers, than twice that sum expended out side the frontiers of the United States-and there will be greater security for the in- yestor.
 want to refer to the veritable witches cauldron being fed constantly with hates distilled from the misdeeds of railway pro- motors in the past, from the conflicts between the railways and the farmers between the railways and their workmen From all the confusion that arises from it we destroy our railways and destroy ourselves
 With this Commission hand surfng honesty in finance, justice to the ship per and the railway investor with the Rail- way Labor Board assuring justice to work CTS and above all with great spirit of pub l1c service in our generation of railway agers it is time to call off the witches and take some. vision of national situation if we are to pull ourselves out of this de- pression.