The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-05-07
RADICALS TO Be
HEARD IN RAIL
VALUATIONS
Senator La Toilette Calls Con-
ference to Prepare for |.
c. c. Hearing.
Continued from First Page.)

Continued from First Page.)
ed. The opponents Of the railroads
in the Senate and the House have
been sitting in the Senate and the
House.
IF now these gentlemen in their
conference in Chicago viii select at
torneys to appear before us and to
give us their sO-cal1ed 'progressive'
valuation theories in opposition to
the theories presented by the rail.
roads, I shall thank them, and I
think my colleagues will thank
them.
"The present situation is that
cases of the utmost importance will
come before us in the immediate
future. If this conference in chi
cago means that we shall now hear
all sides, / regard 1t az q thing
which the Commission will not re-
sist"
Lawyers to Appear.
Meanwhile from sources within
the Progressive Group" it 10
learned that distinguished lawyers
are already prepared to put in an
appearance before the Interstate
Commerce Commission on behalf
of the Progressive Group" or, at
any rate, on behalf of its ideas.
The first consequences therefore
of the conference In Chicago win
be that attorneys for ''prOgresSive"
and radical theories Of valuation
will soon be making their way to the
Interstate Commerce Commission
building. and accordingly the hti-
cation in the valuation prOceedtngs
at the bar OF the Commission will
suddenly be changed into q great
national pro-raiIroad and anti.rAiL
road debate.
At this point, however, the Sec
ond proposition comes along.
It is noted and Acknowledged
that the debate in question 10 bound
to become the political challenge
of the Progressive Group" to its
conservative opponents: and it il
then finally noted that In it,
leadership this challenge IL today
distinctly and exclusively from the
South and West.
Fourteen Sign Conference Call.
Fourteen senators and congress
men and governors have signed the
Railroad Valuation Conference.
These fourteen senator's and con.
gressmen and governors come from
the ten following States:
South Carolina and Alabama In
the South; Texas and Oklahoma
and Arizona in the Southwest: Colo.
RADIO and Montana in the mountain
West; Kansas and Iowa and Wis.
| consin in the prairie West.
In this call there Ii no State from
the region which stretches across
the middle North from Illinois to
Maine. It Is a clearly sectional call.
An elder statesman who has made
some contemporary history and who
has written much past history said
| today:
La Toilette 1s trying to do what
Andrew Jackson did. Andrew Jack
son accumulated the South and the
West against the East and then
| penetrated the East and captured
the wage-earners of Pennsylvania
and New York and carried the
country.
But La Toilette has two diff
culties with Jackson did not have.
One is that today the South and the
west nave got p0Ilt1caIIy separated
by the negro question. The other
| is that the East as the capitalistic
investing section of the country has
now spread all the way to the Mis-
| sissippi.
La Toilette Leads Group.
THE situation nevertheless is at
heart the same. We have had Sen.
ator Kenyon and Senator Capper.
We have had their Farm Bloc
IT'S membership has been entirely
from the South and West. Now
we have La Toilette. Now we have
his Farmer Labor Bloc which he
calls a Progressive Group One OF
its foundations 10 certain great rail
road trade unions. la Toilette. like
Jackson. ia attempting bridge be-
tween the Western farmer and the
Eastern wage-earner.
THE question is: Can that bridge
be made to stand today? Some
think yes I think mo-
Copyright. 1923. by washington Press
Service.)