Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-19
The HQSkin Letter . s 1Rsssz
ADVOCATES RAILROAD HOLIDAY

ADVOCAlES KA1l
Washington, D. c., June 16.-The
suggestion Of Secretary of the Treas.
ury Mellon that the American railroads
need a holiday during which, for a
period of five years or more, they would
be practically free Of government reg
~ulatiOn, has provoked renewed discus
sion of the whole question of railroad
operation.
The swing Of the pendulum back to-
ward a consideration of relaxed railroad
regulation 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, con-
stituting the farthest swing of the
pendulum in the direction of radicalism,
is reported to be on his death bed, fol-
lowing a prolonged illness. Mr.. Plumb's
health is reported to be so impaired
that, even though he might recove
take up the leadership of ~transporta-
ton reform again. His absence from
this field would remov 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 in
reference of such bodies as the In
terstate Commerce commission. MI.
Mellon believes that if the railroads
were permitted to operate independent
ly, they would, through the force of
competition, reduce rates t. a point
where the public would derive much
benefit. The secretary points out that
in the days before regulation, rates
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
creasing rates.
Mr.: Melons suggestion has been re-
ceived 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 a new general investiga-
ton Of the transportation situation by
a 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 commits
sion, in recent opinions in cases before
that body, has expressed officially the
view that the commission a%rrogates to
itself powers too sweeping and invades
the field of management of the rail
roads, whereas. under the law, it should
restrict it's 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 a 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
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
Il special charge for carrying q 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 carriers
needed the money. This he regarded
as alien to the commission 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 crystallized it in his
aphoristic statement that the remedy
is n 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
p~etitors but to give such service that
its facilities would be preferred. It
is claimed that when railroad opera
tion is carried on in a network of regu-
lations and rules which dictate to o
nicely practically every function OF
management great, progressive execu-
tives and alert. capable railroad work
ers are not attracted to the profession.
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 were frozen
to the tracks and ~snowdrifts blocked
the tracks to a point where, on some
of the worst days. traffic practically
was suspended. Mr.. Underwood. who
has been in railroad service for many
years, met at one of the terminals, an
old yardman who had been working all
his life on railroads. Mr.. Underwood
had known him for 30 or 40 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 kept
moving in all weather. The old yard