Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capitol. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: One of the severest tests to which the present administration has been, or will be, put will be presented when the President returns and receives the protests of the trans-continental railway companies which are up i,n arms over the destruction of the monoply they have long enjoyed as a result of the monoply of the Panama Railway Company. Soon after that railway was completed its directors entered into an agreement whereby they bound themselves to transact business only with certain steamship lines, notably the Pacific Mail Steamship Company on the west coast and the Panama Steamship Company on the east coast, which line it controlled. In this way transportation by way of the isthmus was insured from

competition and a monoply created which enabled the trans-continen-tal railroads within the United States to maintain the high rates they have always charged, this “conspiracy in restraint of interstate commerce” having been perfected by the late Collis P. Huntington. As the Panama railroad was without the United States this government was- powerless to prosecute it for maintaining a trust in violation of the Sherman law. t t t

Now that the Panama railroad has passed to the ownership of the United States it is proposed to charge for transportation of freight and passengers only the actual cost of transportation plus a fair rate of profit which shall be converted into a sinking fund. But the more important feature of the government’s ownership promises to be the acceptance of freight and passengers from all steamship and sailing lines which now exist or may be established, regardless of what prices they may charge for water transportation. This means, of course, that the rates between American ports and the isthmus will be regulated by free and fair competition and they will inevitably be materially lowered from the prices maintained when a monopoly existed. It is estimated by the railroad lobbiests, who have already come to Washington with the hope of protecting their clients, that the free competition of steamship companies and the Panama Railway will result in lowering the freight rates between New York and San Francisco, via Panama, from $9 a ton, the rate now charged, to *4 -a ton. Passebger rates, it is claimed, will be lowered from slls to $65, meals included. Of course the railroads will still command the situation where time is a factor, but with freight which demands no haste and with passengers who are willing to take their time, the Panama route will prove the favorite unless the railroads lower their rates to accord with the new water rate, The capacity of the Panama railway will also be limited but it has been decided to double the track which will somewhat offset this factor. t t t The railway lobbiests maintainthat it will plunge their clients into bankruptcy to meet these rates. They do not say, however, that this would be the case only be-

cause of the extent to which the railway stock has been watered. Nevertheless, there will be strong pressure brought to bear on the President to take some step which will save the pampered railways from the effects of fair competition and there is no doubt it will require great moral strength on the part of the President to resist. If the President prove» invulnerable then the lobbiests will turn their attention to Congress and it is entirely possible that in that quarter they may prove successful. If, however, the President and the Congress prove true to the interests of the people the railways will doubtless be compelled materially to lower their trans-continental transportation rates. ttt The people of the United States are not the only ones who have suffered from the trans-isthmian line, as is shown by the protest of seven South American ministers who have tiled a protest with the State Department against the renewal of contracts with South America steamship lines which they claim have been robbing the people of their respective countries. ttt

Apropos of the railway question, considerable interest attaches to the hearings which are to be given on the subject of railway legislation by the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, of which Senator Elkins of West Virginia is chairman. The members of this committee are Senators Elkins, Cullom, Aldrich, Kean, Dolliver, Foraker, Clapp, Millard, Tillman, McLaurin, Carmack, Foster of Louisiana and Newlands, The first of the meetings called to deal with this subject under authority of a special Senate resolution, occurred Monday and it is expected that they will be held almost continuously for several months. Of the above membership, Senator Aldrich is still in Europe, Millard is in Nebraska and Tillman is ill at his home in South Carolina, although it is hoped he will be able to attend, and Senator Millard will propably return to Washington before long, ttt It is generally expected that as a result of these hearings the committee will report some form of railway legislation to the Senate as soon as that body convenes, although those familiar with the attitude and affiliations of a majority of the committee expect that any measure which will be reported will prove either insufficient to accomplish the desired end or, and this is more likely, will be so drastic as to prove unconstitutional when submitted to the Supreme Court. It will remain therefore for the real friends of the President and of railway rate reform to amend the bill on the floor of the Senate until it assumes a form practical and adequate. The next session of Congress will prove an unusually interesting one. Great interests of the public will be at stake, no one of more importance than this one of railway rate regulation, and the attitude and votes of every member of both houses will be, or should be scrutinized closely by their constituents