The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-05-31
1T ALSO HANDICAPs IDAHO
BY Guy Flenner

south out of Idaho into California
our crops would reach natural mar
ket. Such a line is possible thru
constructor from Rogerson, Idaho
to Wells, New, and the building OF
the great American Falls reservoir
constitutes a leading influence in
favor OF such construction. There
is a similar prospect leading farther
north in the Snake river valley. Ida
no could use these new lines. Sc
could every western state. The de-
mand for this added transportation
is wholly out of proportion to ability
to construct, for railroad building
necessitates very large capital, and
this must come from the public
through investment in railroad Sc
curities. No earnings are permits
sible that would begin to supply the
enormous amount of capital requir-
ed
Better markets, nearer markets,
with less crop competition between
producer and buyer, are equivalent
to freight rate reductions. They
spell the thing we want-profits on
our produce.
( Senator Borah recently pointed
freight reductions were impossible
while transportation companies were
forced to such heavy costs, includ-
ing an astounding increase in tax
alton, the figures of which he gave
in detail. So it is essential to have
markets nearer home, and new rail
road construction seems to be the
remedy.
Because it is associated with our
agricultural conditions so closely,
transportation today constitutes
foremost problem in our national life
and is being given the best thought
of leading men. The practical
thought is to bring about conditions
that will once more inspire confidence
in railroad securities in the minds
of the investing public, whose money
is now denied that class of securities,
for the reasons stated by Senator
Borah earnings absorbed in
mounting costs forced on the trans
portation companies-and for some
others
An outstanding reason is the con-
tinuous attack on railroads and.
therefore, ON their securities, by a
powerful group of communists cen
tered in Washington, D. c., who are.
perhaps innocently, in some cases,
lending their influence and their ac
tivities not only to hardening the
arteries of commerce but to produc-
ing a high temperature in the bust
ness body of America, a chief COM
ponent of which is agriculture.
This is all part of one of the most
radical movements in the history of
the nation, embracing elements who
are open in their desire to witness
an overthrow of the existing govern
ment, and participated in, perhaps
unwittingly, by members of congress
who have permitted themselves tol
become mouthpieces of the most
dangerous organization Of radicals in
the world outside of Russia.
Repeal of the transportation act
of 1920, abolition of the railroad
labor board, giving the interstate
commerce commission greater pow
er, equivalent to a dictatorship over
commerce, and removing the exist
ing control designed to prevent dis
elimination as between State and ma
tional freight rates, in order to pre-
vent shipping chaos, are among the
proposals that have been evolved
from this combined communist mind. |
Such wholesale assault, if success
full, would ruin countless institu-
lions holding railroad securities and
impoverish an army of individuals
who carry much of their property in |
that form in amounts of from $1,000 |
to $5000-their savings. 1t would |
railroad stocks and rail
road stockholders and, of course, |
render the acquisition of new capital
impossible Our transportation sys-
tenn would be hopelessly broken
down, with receiverships and gov
eminent control-the highly expen-
sive thing of war times from the
effects of which the country has not
yet recovered. In this group, as
might be expected, is prominently
aligned the Non-Partisan league.
1t is not a matter to create won
derment that sections Of the country
needing new investments for all sorts
Of purposes is still deprived thereof
when such agencies foment the pub
lie mind to doubt in the continued
stability of our government