The Washington times., 1923-09-12

value. They will get 1t because
the Commission, under the law,
feels itself obliged to give great
weight to reproduction COST" The
difference between reproduction
cost" and market value is often
enormous.
No purchaser in his senses, as
Commissioner Eastman remarks,
would pay reproduction cost''-or
even Original cost''-for the Kansas
City, Mexico and Orient, any more
than he would pay it for the At
lanta, Birmingham and Atlantic.
The weak roads, then, If IRE.
its present weight in Supreme
Court decisions and in Interstate
Commerce Commission decisions,
will be given value" which no.
body in the market would offer
for them.
Benefit To Stranger.
This value" however. will not
benefit them so much as 1t will
benefit their stronger competitors.
The fair return" which the Inter.
state Commerce Commission allows
to railroads is not based on the
single value" Of an individual rail-
road but on the aggregate value" Of
all the railroads in q region.
The value" given on the Atlanta.
birmingham and Atlantic will swell
the aggregate value" Of all the rail-
roads in the region of the south.
Freight rates and passenger rates
based on regional aggregate values"
throughout the county will now. ac.
cording to Commissioner Potter. 'be
increased by perhaps hundreds of
millions Of dollars"
From such increases the stronger
roads will naturally draw greater
profits than win come to the weak
roads.
AS the farm bloc" sees those
stronger roads thus proceeding into
the legalized possibility of more
revenue, while more revenue for
the wheat grower remains onlv =
dim and distant chance of the
market, the roar Of rural radicalisrn
viii be summoned to assail the ears
or Congress with it's longest and
loudest recorded threats of political
rebellion.
Meanwhile the decision in the
San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt
Lake case will come near bringing
Senator La Toilette back from
Europe without waiting to see any
of the horrors of Russia. The In.
terstate Commerce Commission has
provided him with all the horrors
he needs to last him through the
whole of the next session Of Con-
gress.
Views of La Toilette.
The commission says that it can.
not find the "original cost" of the
San Pedro. Los Angeles and Salt
Lake. This means that it has re-
fused to estimate that cost.
La Toilette, the author Of the
valuation law and the chairman Of
the progressive conference on
valuation" has told the Interstate
Commerce Commission through his
attorney, Donald Richberg, of
Chicago, that If Original cost" in
any case cannot be found it should
be estimated.
The commission now deliberately
refuses to estimate 1t. The commits
sion estimates reproduction COST"
which today would be high, but 1t
will not estimate Original cost"
which La Toilette claims would al
most always be lower. Majority
members of the commission, under
advice from able counsel. think they
are doing their legal best. Minority
members think they are not.
Commissioner Eastman, who is
known to incline toward the valuA.
ton views held by Senator La Fol-
lette and by Charles Evans Hughes
and by Justice Holmes and by JUS
tice Brandeis, subjects the commits
sion's San Pedro, Los Angeles and
Salt Lake decision to a forty-fiva
page bombardment which will be re-
peated piece-meal in a thousand de-
bates in Congress before this new
railroad war is settled.
In the interim it Is thought that
while Senator La Toilette is at
tacking the San Pedro valuation
for being too high, the San Pedro
itself will attack it for being-as
Commissioner Potter says IT. s.
some twenty million dollars too
low.
Decision Split Commission.
These two decisions have split the
commission. They will split Con.
gress. The principals involved in
them have already split the Su-
preme Court. They presently, un-
der pressure from the farm bloc"
and the progressive group" will
split the country unless in Con.
gress some accommodation of the
struggle is happily reached.
Commissioner Eastman IL thought
to be expressing only the bure
truth when In his dissenting opIn.
ion In the San Pedro case he saws:
This case deals with an issue
or greater moment to tho country
than any that we have ever de-
| termined"