Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-06-20

Wv suggestion of Secretary of the Treas
ury Mellon that the American rail
roads need holiday during which, for a
period of five years or more, they would be
practically free of government regulation,
has provoked renewed discussion of the
whole question of railroad operation.
The swing of the pendulum back toward
a consideration of relaxed railroad regu-
lation is believed to mark one of the cycles
of development peculiarly 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 direction of radical
ism, is reported to be on his death bed,
following prolonged illness. Mr.. Plumbs
health is reported to be SO impaired that,
even though he might recover from his
present illness, he could not take up the
leadership of transportation reform again.
His absence from this field would remove
one of the strongest opponents to relaxed
railroad regulation 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 difficulties more speedily if 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 independently.
they would, through the force of competition,
reduce rates to point where the public
would derive much benefit. The secretary
points out that in the days before regula-
ton, rates for transportation of freight and
passenger fares were much lower than now
and that the history of railroad rate regu-
lation in the United States has been a
history of progressively increasing rates.
Mr.. Melons suggestion has been received
with much interest, and it seems likely that
a whole new crop of proposals for railroad
relief will spring up in its wake. These
may develop into new general investiga-
ton of the transportation situation by a
congressional committee.
Opposes Too Much Regulation
Some members of the interstate COM
merce commission have shown leanings to-
ward the belief that too much regulation
is not good for the railroads and not good
for the public. Mark Potter, a member of
the commission, in recent opinions in cases
before that body, has expressed officially
the view that the commission arrogates to
itself powers too sweeping, and invades the
field of management of the railroads,
whereas, under the law, it should restrict
its activities to a detached and impersonal
Judging OF right and wrong in railroad
cases, within the meaning of the act to
regulate commerce.
The first dissent from the practice which
in recent years has grown up of regulating
the railroads as though they were owned
by the commission, was expressed by the
late Commissioner Clements in the second
five per cent case. In that case the railroads
asked for rate increase, claiming that they
could not make money unless they received
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 a
railroad had to do to get a rate increase
was to prove that it needed money, the
burden of proof of why an increase should
be granted, which is placed by the statute
on the railroad, had become light and easy
to carry.
1t was the opinion Of Commissioner
Clements that the abstract business of
a specific charge for carrying a given
commodity a certain distance should be
the measure of regulation, and that the
commission had no legal right to give or
withhold rate increase on the basis of
whether or not the carriers needed the
money. This he regarded as alien to the
commissions function and an assumption
of a managerial 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