The Washington herald., 1922-03-26
FAVORS NATIONAL
PLAN IN DEALING
WITH RAILROADS

cas,fb,aed From Page One.
of the transportation act of 1920 in
vital respects The farm organlza-
tions-and the farmers have my
deepest sympathy because / know
the hardships through which they
are passing-demand the repeal of
what Is known as Section 15-A.
This section proSidss that thu
Interstate Commerce CommissIeu
shall consider transportation from
u national standpoint; that we shall
no longer attempt to regulate our
common carriers by reference tC
. the particular condition OF any
specific carrier. 1t tells the Inter.
state Commerce Commission to looB
at all the railways of the Uniteo
States. and to see that they are
maintained to serve the people; &c
do what il can to maintain no.
one of them but all of them.
Would Ascertain Values.
This section says to the Inter-
state Commerce CommiSsio Take
all the railways. little and big,
prosperous and otherwise, and as
certain as nearly as you can the
value of all of this property
we told the commission: Dis
miss the bonds and stocks from
your consideration. Find out what
all this property is worth under
the rules which. have been lestab-
lished by the Supreme Court of the
United States. Do it as nearly as
you can for the present. Ultimate
ly. do it sCOncluSively. and when
you have done 50, fix your rates
SO that they will make a fair re-
turn upoL this property as a whole,
or, in such districts or territories
as you may see fit to divide the
United States
some of the best people of the
country have reached state of
mind where this section of the
transportation act is sort of
DOGGY. They impute to it all the
ills which can flow from the most
vicious legislation. They want that
section repealed and want the In
terStatc. Commerce Commission
committed to the administration Of
a law that will deal not with the
transportation system Of the United
States as a whole, but with par
ticular systems or particular COM
panies engaged in transportation
DeIcnds section l5-A.
I'VE are holding hearings on
those bills now. We have taken
many hundreds of pages of testi-
mOny upon this contention. But II
ca nprevent it section i5-A will
not be repealed
There is one other strong move
ment for the modification of the
transportation act. 1t relates to
the respective jurisdictions Of the
Interstate Commerce Commission
and the several State public utility
commissions. Ii is said that the
change we made in 1920 in the
law has 80 revolutionized matters
that il has Withdrawn from tho.
various State commissions the
power to regulate carriers within
State lines and to regulate rates
and practices concerning intra state
business and has concentrated all
that authority in the Interstate
Commerce Commission
Denies such Is Purpose.
If VIC did that believe the
law ought to be amended. But 1
do not believe that We did it
Here is what We did:
Under the old law the Supreme
Court decided that if a State
regulatory body fixed the rate from
a point in the State to another
point in the State that discrim-
mated AGAINST an. interstate rate
from a point outside the State to
4 point in the State, that the dis
elimination was unlawful.
Il do not want the Federal
authorities to take possession of
all the regulation which may be
necessary concerning common car
riers throughout the country. It
should } not be given power of
rcgUltiO (which is purely a State
matter and which does not and
cannot concern intimately or sub
Stantially interstate commerce. But
] believe one of the purposes OF
our government is to make COM
merce between States national
subject and that nOthing-neither
the act of the carriers nor the
act of the State-Can be permitted
to interfere with the supreme au-
thOrity of the national government
in seeing that interstate commerce
flows without tax and without dis
elimination from one State TO an
other
We shall cease to be nation IL
we do not stand firmly for the ma
tiOnal conception Of transportation
and of commerce among our peO-
pie"