Evening star., 1940-03-12

tana discussed American rail-
Radio Forum last night.
preston. 1t would avoid repeated
reorganizations of the same road.
Third Bill Pending.
have repeatedly contended that
when railroad could not meet its
fixed charges it should 60 into bank
ruptcy. When expenses continue to
exceed revenues businessman or
an individual is broke He goes
through bankruptcy, so should a
railroad.
1t would be possible for me to
! enumerate almost without end
stupid, costly and scandalous exam
Piles of railroad mismanagement. I
could point out wastes of the stock
holders money in buying stock of
other railroads at exorbitantly high
prices; wastes in activities outside
the movement of passengers and Of
freight: and other wastes which
have been and are forceful factors
in producing the present condition
of railroads.
Passed by the Senate and pending
before the House committee at this
time is a third bill which I intro
duced and which I feel would in
some measure prevent the recurrence
of these wastes and abuses. The
Interstate Commerce Commission
is empowered by this bill to obtain
relevant information from railroad
holding companies, associations,
banks, brokers and others with
whom railroads deal. This bill would
confer upon the commission the au-
thority to supervise the use of rail-
road funds for other than strictly
railroad purposes. though the COM
panies would not be restricted in the
investment of surplus funds in a
safe manner.
The Senate has already passed
these vital railroad bills; one Of
them-the regulatory measure-has
passed both the House and Senate
and will presently become law. I
am hopeful that the Congress will
enact all three before this session is
concluded
AS important as the railroad prob
lem is there are other direct and i'm
portrant issues that face Congress
and the Nation. and I propose to
discuss them briefly.
From abroad, east or west, we
hear the rattle of machine guns. the
thunder of cannon and the drone
of war planes. AS a nation We are
resolved to avoid conflict. Our SYM
oathies and our emotions may be
unneutral, but in act we must OBJ
serve the strictest neutrality Let
us not allow foreign affairs to di-
vert our attention away from what
is far more important to us, namely,
the solution of our domestic prob
lens. Remember we fought the last
war to make the world safe for
democracy, and today we have fewer
democracies. The only war in which
We can engage is a must war a
war against unemployment. a war
that would restore and rebuild agri-
culture This is an economic and
social war and it is the only war
that will preserve and maintain
democracy. There must be no black
out of our efforts to rehabilitate
the underprivileged, whether he be
a worker, farmer or any one else.
Eor,~~ d. Douv&anfe
Agriculture burdened with debt
and interest charges born of drought
and low prices has looked long and
intently for the day of relief. The
Farm Act of 1898 did not COM
pletely solve the problem.
But even more disappointing to
the farmer is the present threat
that Congress will disregard the
moral obligation imposed upon it
by the 1888 act, that of making
parity payments to agriculture
Without exceeding the Nations debt
limit, without creating additional
taxes, it would be possible to make
these promised parity payments.
There exists a $4,000. .000. 900 stabili-
zation fund, the profits from which,
I understand, would run into the
millions and millions of dollars. Out
of these profits it would be possible
for Congress to meet its moral OBJ
legations to agriculture.
A few days ago Senator Bank
head, Senator La Toilette, Repre-
sentative Jones and I introduced a
debt adjustment bill which we feel
will be of great benefit to the farm
ers and which We hope will be en-
acted at this session of Congress.
At the last session I introduced q
wheat certificate bill with which the
farmers of the West are familiar
I hope it will have the support OF
congressional leaders and that II
will be passed during this session OF
Congress
For a decade this Nation has suf-