San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-01
ASKS HOW PEOPLE
WILL USE VOTING
POWER OVER ROADS
Partial Control of Lines Is
Political and Is De-
termined by People.
BY ALFRED p. THOM
General Counsel Association of Rail
way Executives,

General Counsel Association of Rail-
way Executives.
The controlling facts relating to
transportation by railroad are axio-
matte and have become almost common
place.
No one will undertake to deny:
Q) That adequate rail transportation
is absolutely essential TO the public
welfare.
(2) That it must, in the public inter-
est, be continuous and uninterrupted.
90 That under a system of private
ownership and operation it is a bust
ness and is subject to the ordinary
economic laws which make success or
failure in other lines of business.
a. That, in order TO be successful,
the irresistible operation of economic
law requires that it must have the fl
nancial means TO insure its existence,
its efficiency, its adequacy, and its
proper development.
All this is clear. The difficulty, how
ever, is that this business has been
brOUght-and under our system of
government has been necessarily
brought-under a government control
which is political. The public which
does the voting, has the power TO make
it or destroy it,
The great question is how will the
public use that power. Will it rec
organize q. the foregoing self-evident
truths and use its power wisely. tenn
perately, and thoughtfully, 10 build up
and conserve transportation as a bust
ness, to make the income, which it
limits, adequate for all the legitimate
requirements of this business, and to
insure its adequacy, efficiency, and
proper development, or will il listen
TO the urging of the agitator TO treat
it as an oppressOr of tee public and
to cripple and strange it?
Heretofore the governmental policy
has been to deprive the rail- Dads of
proper participation in the profits en-
iOyed in prosperous times by all other
businesses. and thus to project IL in
an unprepared, If not in a starved, con-
ditiOn into periods of general business
depression, unable TO share in the bur-
dens which adversely brings to the
producing classes-classes which have
enjoyed, without governmental re-
striction, the fruits of the period of
prosperity denied to the railroads.
Again, all business. to be successful,
must operate under conditions Of rea-
sonable certainty and stability.
Will the political control of trans
pOrtation permit it a reasonable period
of rest. certainty and stability in the
conditions under which operates, or
will it tomorrow. in response to the
supposed exigencies of party or of
class, take away any elements OF sup
port and protection which Z may have
thought wise and just and may have
provided yesterday?
These are some of the important
questions on the answers to which the
future of transportation will depend.
The capacity for moderation Of poll
teal control and its capacity for sta
bility of economic policy are now on
trial.
II is to be hoped the public will re-
member that. notwithstanding any criti-
cism which may justly he made against
the present system at any stage of its
development. private initiative, energy,
and genius have created for the Amer
lean people a system Of transportation
which has ever been the fearless pioneer
of useful progress. which in half cen
fury or little longer have developed
the American continent and enabled
the American people 70 become the lead
ing nation Of the earth, and which in
the recent war, by the mobilization and
coordination Of our resources. have
saved the civilization and the liberties
Of mankind.
Copyrieltt. 1899.