Evening star., 1923-04-24
RAIL HEAD FLAYS
j. s. REGULATION
Loree, at D. & H. tooth
Birthday Celebration, Says
System a Calamity.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, April Extracting
railroad history in America at ban
quet last night celebrating the hun
dredth anniversary of the Delaware
and Hudson Company, l.. F. Loree,
president of the road, asserted that
regulatory interference with private
operation had reached point where
| "railroading is no longer business;
it has become a calamity
On the center-piece of the table at
which Mr.. Loree spoke was humming
a operated model of the first locomo-
| tive to ride the rails in America, the
Stourbridge Lion, SO named because
it's seven and one-half tons of weight
ripped up the rails and played havoc
/ with the road-bed and tiimsy track
| so carefully laid for it's perform
ance.
| Around the table were directors of
! the Delaware and Hudson, most of
| them with names famous in railroad
| history. veteran employees of the
/ road, noted executives OF other lines
and public officials.
i Depew Present.
/ Chauncey NJ. Depew, celebrating his
! eighty ninth birthday, headed the di-
rectors Speakers included J. s.
| Alexander, president of the National
Bank of Commerce, and H. w. Dick
| inSon, of the science museum. Lon
don, and secretary of tn" Newcomer
| Society.
Mr.. Loree told of how the first road
was built between Homesdale and
| Carbondale, Pa. two miles of it iron
| strips on wooden ties; and of how the
little steam engine from England
| wrecked it.
J encourag cement the government first
| adopted in the form of land grants,
| tax immunities and other concessions,
| has become a policy of obstruction
through the deteriorating influence
of federal commissions empowered to
| regulate.
"The degeneracy of such a system
! is Inevitable" he said 1T sets up
a buyers tribunal, controlled by no
! standards of law or equity. certain
fishly interested in depressing rates,
Regulation Impossible.
"All such regulation is inevitably
| ineffective to satisfy the hopes and
J prejudices of those by whom it is sus-
! tained. 1t can not succeed. in this
sense. because these prejudices and
| the hopes and the motivation of
, short sighted self-interest, wf1en
; not subject to the check Of RESPONSE
. bility for financial results. are with
out limit. In this way, the failures
| of regulation became, instead Of
| recognized evidences of error leadin &
| to repeal. steps towards more drastic
| regulation. The end of progression
| is not difficult to forsee: in the cast
! of railway regulation. 1t Is plainly
| within the range of vision and takes
the form of the disaster of govern
ment ownership and operation. This
| calamity. if it comes, will be the
/ price paid for the incapacity of lead
ershiD that is apparently unable to
! find any escape from the grotesque
and monstrous futility of adding
| every year to the super-structure of
! regulation.
! But it is not alone the railroads
that are being destroyed: the very
vftals are being torn from the body
of our liberties. while the temptation
| held out to the producer to loot the
! savings of those who have investe /
| in railroads is destroying the founda-
| tions of justice and morals upon
which alone an orderly government
! can be maintained"