The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-04-26

4
while 1t looked dark for labor unions
can Senators Hawkes. and Homer
Capehart of Indiana.
Old-time observers in Washington
are impressed by the limited coverage
the metropolitan newspapers and the
press services have given the hear
ings. With tn exception of such papers
as PM, the st. Louis Post-Dispatch
and the Chicago Sun little prominence
has been given to the story.
Wendell Berge, assistant attorney
general in charge of the antitrust di-
vision, and his special assistants on
the railroad cases expect to take more
than week in presenting their evil
dence before the Wheeler committee.
They are expected to testify that the
railroad monopoly has by its rate-mak-
ing conspiracy overcharged the fed
eral government many millions of dol
lars during the war for hauling war
materials.
In the face of the mounting evidence
supporting the Arnall and Department
of Justice accusations of conspiracy
Senator Wheeler continues to talk
about amending the Bulwinkle bill and
reporting it favorably from his COM
mittee. Wheeler's suggestion is that
the rate bureaus" set up by the AAR
be regionalized, divorced from cen
| trail control by the AAR, and be put
under the ice. He is still favoring
the principle that the roads be allowed
to get together to fix rates even
though in smaller groupings.
Arnall and the other opposition wit.
nesses ridicule this position. They
point to the financial strings stem
ming from the Wall Street banking
houses to all the railroads of the coun-
try, great and small, and say that only
by a complete breakup of the AAR
will competition be restored and the
public be protected
Their feelings about these proposed
Wheeler safeguards are symbolized by
the vehement words of Congressman
Helen Douglas Mankin of Georgia who
was recently elected to take Congress-
man Ramspeck's seat. She scoffed at
Wheelers proposals as entirely mean
ingless."
How can the congress safely en-
trust to this tired commission the re-
sponsibility of policing the private
government which rests within the
hierarchy of railroad rate associations
and committees which have been de-
scribed to this committee?" she asked
from the witness stand
1.-THE Bulwinkle BILL" she said,
would take away from the courts
and place in the hands of that tired"
commission the duty of protecting the
public from the evils of monopoly.
That commission has known and ap-
and the arbitrary manner in which
they have fixed rates"
use IT.
Mrs. Mankin quoted the advice Civ
en- to a railroad president by Richard
Olney, a cabinet member in the Cleye-
land administration, when Olney was
a railroad lawyer soon after the ice
was established. That advice, she said,
was: at (the ICC) satisfies the pop
ular nlamor for government superb
vision of the railroads; at the same
time that supervision is entirely NOM
inal.
Further, the older such a commits |
sion gets to be, the more inclined it |
will be found to take the business and |
railroad view of things. 1t thus be-
comes sort of barrier between the |
railroad corporations and the people |
and sort of protection against crude |
and hasty legislation hostile to the
railroad interests. The part of wisdom |
is not to destroy the commission, but
to use it,"
Both Mrs. Mankin and Governor Ar
nall cited numerous cases of discrim-
inatory rate practices against little
shippers in the South. ArnalI main
tanned that the South and the West
have been kept "in a colonial status"
by the operations of the railroad mo-
lopoly and its rate discrimination. SO
ong as that remains so, he declared.
so long will our people be proper
poorer and have lower in
comes.
Hope to Delay
The consensus of opinion among DO 1
itical observers here is that the rail
Dad lobby will finally get the Bull
yinkle bill through the Wheeler COM
nittee. That doesn't mean it will be
passed by the senate right away. The
i'm of Wheeler and all other sena-
ors up for election this year is to
tall the bill as long as possible.
they'd like to delay action till after
lection.
This political opinion is based on
he smoothness with which the lobby /
,ot what it wanted in the house. The II
notifications of the lobbys financial Il
treasures in congressional districts in
ii corners of the countryside cham
'ers of commerce, 'stooge" shipping
associations and so oIl-were SO effec-
i've that political analysts feel the
anne pressures will prevail in the
ase of the senators.
The only condition likely to offset Il
hese pressures would be an aroused
abor and farm movement But there Il
re no signs yet that the peoples or
of the country have be-
ONE awakened to the meaning of the
-1orola ooino an bafaro A. 1