Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1917 — State Regulations With No Approach to Uniformity Burden the Railroads [ARTICLE]

State Regulations With No Approach to Uniformity Burden the Railroads

By J. A. ADAMS of Chicago

Sectional selfishness and shortsightedness have Jed to the passage of state laws giving preference to railroad traffic within circumscribed areas at the expense and to the prejudice of neighboring states served by the railroads subjected to these enactments. Fifteen gtates, by prescribing a minimum daily movement for freight cars or by imposing heavy penalties for delays, attempt to favor their own traffic. Some of these have fixed the minimum moving distance for a freight car at, <SO miles a day, the average for the whole country being 26 miles. In one state the penalty for delay is $lO an hour. r l wenty states , regulate hours of: railway ggryice;. the, variationg.: ten sixteen hours a day. Twenty-eight states specify headlight requirements without an approach to uniformity, and fourteen states have dissimilar safety-appliance acts. Compliance with these requirements places a burden upon the railroads, which is not borne alone by traffic from these discriminating states, but is imposed upon the whole volume of traffic entering these states. State laws, moreover, are not merely suggestive. I hey are positively mandatory, and divest the carrier absolutely of discretion to develop new markets or to deal with‘trade equities. As a result the creative, aggressive individuality and experience of the railroads is throttled and subordinated to the caprice, arbitrary rule and inexperience of political regulators whose performance is mechanical, superficial and selfish.