Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1917 — RAILROAD SITUATION IS NOW LARGELY UP TO CONGRESS [ARTICLE]

RAILROAD SITUATION IS NOW LARGELY UP TO CONGRESS

Must Share Responsibility In Future Development. ; ROBERT S. LOVETT’S VIEWS “Unification of Regulation Io FMontial.’* -~A-6ompioto, Harmonioua,“€on»istent and Related Syotem Needed —Federal Incorporation of Railroads by General Law Favored— —.— — n Washington. March 20. Responsibility for the railway development of the country, for providing necessarytransportation facilities to care for t he growing business and population ol the country, now rests largely with congress and not entirely with the rail road managers-. *This was the state ment of Judge Robert S. Lovett, chairman of the executive committee of the Union Pacific system, to the Newlands joint congressional committee when that body resumed its inquiry into the subject of railroad regulation this week. In making this statement of the changed conditions of the railroad situation Judge Lovett undoubtedly had in mind the decision of the supreme court on the Adamson law, hande.l down last week, which establishes the right of the federal government to fix railroad wages and to prevent strikes This decision is regarded by railroad men and lawyers as marking an epoch in the development of transportation in the United States. ♦ “We have our share of responsibility ." said Judge Lovett, “but it rests prima rily on congress. When the govern ment regulates the rates and the finan cial administration of the railroads, the borrowing of money and the issuance of securities it relieves the railroad offlcers of the responsibility of providing and developing transportation systems, except within the limits of the revenue that can be realized from such rates and under such restrictions. “For a country such as ours, for a people situated as we are, to blunder along with a series of unrelated, incon sistent, conflicting statutes enacted by different states without relation to each other, instead of providing a com plete-and carefully studied and [irepared system of regulation for a business that is so vital to the .life of the nation, is worse than folly.’’ He summed up the present problems and difficulties of the railroads as follows:—— '" : ’ First.—The multiplicity of regulations by the several states with respect to the issue of securities, Involving delays and conflicting state policies generally dangerous and possibly disastrous. Second.—The state regulation of rates in such a manner as to unduly reduce revenues, to discriminate in favor of localities and shippers within its own borders as against localities and shippers in other states and to.disturb and disarrange the structure of interstate rates. Third.-The inability of the Interstate Commerce Commission, whoever the commissioners may be, to perform the vast duties devolving upon it under existing laws, resulting in delaywhich should never occur in commercial matters—and compelling the commissioners to accept the conclusions of their employees as final in deciding matters of great importance to the commercial and railroad interests of the country. Fourth.—The practical legality that has been accorded conspiracies to tie up and suspend the operation of the railroads of the country by strikes and violence and the absence of any law to compel the settlement of such dis putes by arbitration or other judicial means, as all other issues between citizens in civilized states are to be settled. Fifth.—The phenomenal increase in the taxation of railroads in *= recent years. Sixth.—The cumulative effect of these conditions upon' the ihvesting public, to which railroad companies must look for the capital necessary to continue development“We believe that the unification of regulation is essential,” said Judge Lovett, “and that with the rapid in crease of state commissions in recent years congress will in time be com pel led to exercise its power in the premises. To unify regulation there should be a complete, harmonious, con sistent and related sy stemF-We Relieve thebest, if not the only practical plan, is the federal incorporation of railroads by general law, which will make incorporation thereunder compulsory, thus imposing on all railroad companies throughout the United States the same corporate powers and restrictions with respect to their financial operations and the same duties and obligations to the public and the government, so that every investor will know precisely what every railroad corporation may and may not lawfully ........

Judge Lovett contended that the so lution of these problems and difficulties rested with congress. He told the committee that jjnder the constitution the authority of the' federal govern ment is paramount, that congress has the power to legislate for a centralized control of railroads under federal char ters and that it only remains for that body to exercise that power.