Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-09-22

oHAoI1l&Nd ION sept. Sl.-4NOll-
ing eppears ore certain as IN issue
in the next Cor ~ress and the next
national political G. npaign than the
problem of what to do about the rail-
roads. A fight over the t~ransporta-
ton industry looms Up like a Levia-
than in a fleet of rowboats. There
will be other fights, but they will be
puny affairs, insignificant in COM
parison and in their effects.
There are numerous angles to the
railroad fight. First, there is the
general demand for lower freight
and passenger rates, with a specific
insistence from the farmers that the
tariffs on their products must be
materially reduced and a similar def
mite contention tLat the first step
toward a solution of the coal prob
lem is to lop off part of the trans
portation charge on our basic fuel.
Second, there is the opposition of
the railroad owners and managers to
the proposal that the railroads must
be consolidated into a few big sys-
TENS. The Transportation Act of
1920 contemplated such c%onsolida-
lions but did not make them man
datory and there is a well-defined
movement for an amendment to the
law that will force combinations
somewhat in line with the Ripley
Plan. Eastern roads and the big
transcontinental lines are dead set
against consultations and are UNI
derstood to be ready to make a
last-ditch fight in opposition.
Third, there is the liveliest kind of
scrap in sight over the valuation of
the railroads by the Interstate Com
merce Commission, a ten-year task
of the Commission that is nearing
completion but may be indefinitely
delayed If Congress listens to some
OF its leaders, who say that the Job
hasn't been done right and should
be done over again on a basis diff
fering radically from that which the
Commission has adopted. This
question of valuation affects or COM
pllcates every phase of the railroad
problem and bids fair to overshadow
all the others, at least in the early
stages of the coming fight.
In the end it is to be expected
that the big struggle will be over
the question of Government owner
ship of the railroads, and, indeed, at
any stage of the fight over the other
issues that have been mentioned the
proposal that Uncle Sam take over
the transportation business of the
country may be precipitated as the
one and only real solution of the
most vexatious problems confront
ing the American people.
Couzens Looked To AS Leader
Senator Couzens of Michigan, is
looked to as the leader of the Gov
eminent ownership forces. The
business-statesman who was for
years Henry r'ord's right-hand man
has not as yet placed himself UNI
qualifiedly on record as ~favoring the
taking owe of the railroads by the
Government, but h has said repeat
eddy that every development in con-
nection with the transportation
problem seems to tend logically and
inevitably toward Government own
ership. Private ownership and OPP
Grafton under Government regula-
ton is essentially a failure, in his
opinion, and no one has brought for
ward an idea or plan that will re-
trieve its failure.
In short. Senator Couzens is un-
derstood to be prepared to take the
ground that Government ownership
is being literally forced on the
country and that whether we like it
or not we must accept it as a last
resort because existing conditions
are in~tolerable. The senator has
been devoting a great deal of time
to the study of transportation and
has had the assistance of experts in
working out a comprehensive plan
that will be proposed when the
propitious or psychological moment
arrives. He will not be caught in
the predicament of some proponents
of radical measures who tell the
public what to do but are unable to
explain how it may be done.
1t goes without saying that there
will be tremendous opposition to the
Government ownership idea. The
failures or alleged failures of Gov
eminent operation during the war
emergency Will be advanced as con-
elusive evidence that II were worse
than folly for the Government to try
it again, ven on a different basis,
and the taking over Of one of the
basic industries will be assailed as
an experiment so radical as to jeo-