The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-06-26
QFes
Ia BE-
POLICY OF DO NOTHING

A POLICY Or Do NOTHING
While there are some angles and viewpoints in
the discussion of railroad problems now being car
ried on by the Chicago Journal of Commerce with
which this newspaper cannot entirely agree there
is much food for thought in the second editorial
in the Journal which, in effect, urges that every
body keep hands off the present federal transport
tation act. The Journal argues that if the public
will only allow the operating powers to really get
down to brass tacks in the working out of trans
portation procedure good results can be obtained
and much of the present unrest and trouble OBJ
walled The point might be raised that because
the Esch-Cummins act does not meet the approval
of many minds familiar with conditions, there ought
to be notifications but the Journal insists that the
act be allowed to function one hundred per cent
before people pass judgment.
The Journal says
''Paradcxcal as it may sound, the very FIRST
thing to do is to do nothing-and vigorously to
insist that nothing be done.
hat does not sound very constructive, but it
is. The thing which demands this vigorous lack OF
action from the public and particularly from state
commissions, is the Transportation Act of 1920.
Let it alone
This legislation was passed by Congress after
an exhaustive study of national requirements in
transportation, ard of regulatory provisions which
would protect every public interest without hro-
Ting railway eficiency-an investigation which for
thoroughness and practical craftsmanship has sell
dom been equaled.
This act is the foundation on which all rail-
road operation rests The question of whether
railroad securities can ever again attract private
capital is a question Of what net earnings they
develop under the provisions of this BILL No one
can know the answer until the legislation has had
a thorough test under normal business and trans
portaton conditions. Unless private capital invests
and invests heavily, in railroad securities during the
next few years, a disastrous transportation break
down is inevitable
'All of these facts are known, yet the transport
taton act has hardly begun to function when state
commissions start hamstringng campaign. Ger
tain provisions Of the BILL they say. interfere with
states rights Perhaps they do, technically. There
never can be complete divol enent of interstate
and inrastate transportation: such a result would
be calamitous, to state as well as nation even if
it were attainable. And so long as there is this
inevitable overlapping there always will exist GER
tain technical overlapping Of state and federal
authority in railroad regulation. The folly of in
sistence upon the letter Of the law in exercising
state authority has bee demonstrated time and
again by results SO absn they ridicule the
practice out Of the cou.y IT, iblic opinion. In
one state headlights on locomotives had 10 be
changed when the state boundary was reached. In
another a full crew bill required each train
to carry an extra trainman as far as the state line.
where he was dropped and sent back on return
ing train; carried both ways practically as a pas
senger-absoluley no duties, no work except to
draw pay for both jobs.
State commissions have many important func-
tons in railroad supervision and control on mat
tiers clearly within each state; but they certainly
should not undertake, directly or indirectly, to
hamper the full and free operation of the Esch-
Cummins bill in its effort to straighten up our ma
tional transportation problem.
Concrete examples are always clearer than
abstract statements. Here is an illustration taken
from the actual experience Of shipper CT lumber