The Washington herald., 1922-03-26
FAVORS NATIONAL
PLAN In DEALING
WITH RAILROADS
Senator Cummins Says
Merger Would Avert
U. S. Ownership.

With Senator Cummins. of Iowa.
asserting that the consolidation of
the railroads into a few great sys-
TENS is all that can avert eventual
government ownership and opera
ton Of the transportation lines. un-
usual Importance attaches 70 the
proceedings pertaining to this ques-
ton which will begin before the In
terstate Commerce Commission next
month.
The commission will hear the
views of railroad officials and others
on the various consolidation schemes
which have been proposed to carry
out the following provision Of the
transportation act Of 1920:
"A commission shall as soon as
practicable prepare and adopt a
plan for the consolidation of the
railway properties of the conti-
mental United States into limited
number Of systeTrs.
To Preserve Competition.
In the division Of such railways
into such systems under such plan.
competition shall be preserved as
fully as possible and wherever
practicable the existing routes and
channels of trade and commerce
shall be maintained.
Subject to the foregoing require
ments, the several systems shall he
SO arranged that the cost of trans
portation as between competitive
systems and as related to the values
of the properties through which the
service is rendered shall be the
same, so far as practicable, so that
the systems can employ uniform
rates in the movement of competi-
tive. traffic and under efficient man.
agement earn substantially the same
rate Of return upon the value of
their respective railway properties"
Senator Cummins, one of the
authors of the transportation act
and an acknowledged authority on
railroad questions, said that there
are some, of our railroad companies
that never can be maintained until
the process of consolidation is con-
summated.
Fears L. s. Ownership.
Il predict" said the Senator. that
il we do not succeed in carryiig out
the principle of consolidation, which
has already gone forward in very
satisfactory way, il will presently
begin to appear to all the people
of the country that there is just
one other solution-that is gov
ernment ownership and operation.
II we do not consolidate the lines,
government ownership and opera
tion Is the only recourse open to
the American people. And l want
it to be understood that 1 am un-
alterably opposed to government
ownership and operation Of our rail-
roads.
THE American railroad problem
will never be finally solved unless
all the railroads are consolidated
into comparatively few systems. say
fifteen or twenty, and competitive
in their character. l might add
that there is no competition in the
railroad world and ought to be
none except the competition of good
service, the competition which rem
ders one railway property more at
tractive to a shipper than another,
or one railway passenger train
more attractive TO a traveller than
another.
Many Bills Pending.
when that is done we can fix
rates so that the lowest schedules
that will sustain these properties
as a whole may be established.
There are now pending before
Congress, and especially in the Sem
ate, a great many bills which have
for their purpose the modification
Continued On Page T,oo.