The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-06-21
TRAGEDY OR TRAGI-COMEDY

THE RECENT ST LOUIS-OFALLON DECISION
THE INFAMOUS ESCH- CUMMINS BILL AND
eMONTANA'S LACQUEY SENATOR T. J. WALSH
TO SENATOR T. j. WALSH:
You voted for and assisted materially in the
passage of the Esch- Cummins Bill Because of the
smell, the said Bill rechristened and is now
known the Transportation Act
The said Bill was passed in 1920. Following its
passage, both Esch and Cummins sought endorse
ment and reelection in their respective states
Their defeat was almost unanimous. For his per-
fdy, Esch was rewarded by lame-duck appoint
ment to membership on the Interstate Commerce
Commission Cummins did not survive the shock
of defeat and left a record for the ndulgent his
torian to justify.
Unlike Wisconsin and Iowa, the home states of
Esch and Cummins, Montana is governed by Wall
Street. through its newspaper agency, the A. C. M.
Company. This agent company gave you, Senator
Walsh, the political support of Wall Street. With
that support your duplcity was, at least partially
rewarded and the beneficiary, Wall Street, is now
measuring its gains in billions of dollars Equally
guilty with your co-conspirators, the entrenched
interests saved you politically in their rustowned
state, while Esch and Cummins, of independent
states, went sailing ANONYMOUSLY along the calm
and lmperturbable waters of Plebscite River.
which rises In Wisconsin and flows maiesticallv
on and through the great agricultural State of
Iowa.
TWENTY BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Now comes court analysis of the iniquitous
Esch- Cummins, Transportation Act, which, accord
ing to the Wall Street Journal is worth S2OO00
100000 to the railway companies
You may have observed Mr.. Walsh, that the
recent decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States, in the famous ST. Louis O'FalIon
case, requires railroad valuations to be based on
cost OF reproduction, provided for in the Trans
portation Act And you may recall that YOUR
friend William Jennings Bryan, in an action at law
many years ago, contended vehemently that repro
duction cost should be the basis for public utility
valuations And that, at that time the courts were
of opposite views
IL remained for you and others to sustain the
Iheory Oh the democratic hero of 1896 but under
changed conditions. You selected time when
American Trusts had reached the zenith of perfec-
uon' and a time when, through trust prices the
reproduction cost would be five times greater than
such cost would have been during the early DAVIS
Ol tne Commoner Indeed, propitous time for
the sch-Cummins Bill
AS to trust prices, which now multinlv ra;lrood
Naiuatlons you and other servants of the entrench
gu interests have been SILENT while the people have
;, 0iueu the opportunity to buy outside of
'ne trust an automobile of American manufacture.
d. price Tar less than ever quoted since the be-
ginning OF auto manufacture. This particular au-
'omoDne is the product of workingmen who are
pau the nlgnest OF the so-called high wages, and
the raw materials are not unlike the paw roa+sxaI
OI locomotives train cars rails and other srnuies
ana equipment used by railroads. These foot,
prove conclusively, that the trust nr;ces ovoo+o5
from railroads bv their silent ,,o,-+,,o -.
ers, are the parents of the scheme which cO,,sIoa
with the Esch-Cummins bill, has cuminated :,
growth equal to more than twenty-five billions 90
fictitious railroad valuation. -
This additional gift of twenty billions 70 +bo 81,
roads, by you and others, as representatives 81 +ho
people, has now legal standing Without pecuni-
airy sacrfice the railroads may now await the ab;l-
Hy OF the people to withstand the pressure of b0b-