Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1907 — TELLS RAIL POLICY. [ARTICLE]

TELLS RAIL POLICY.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 18 *©R FAIR PLAY. Ix Indianapolis Speech Ha Glva* Warn In* to Persona of Waaltk •■4 Caution* People Agalnit Dem> ■t»gne>—Pnblleitx as Remedy. President Roosevelt spoke frankly, earnestly and vigorously on the railroad situation at the unveiling of the Lawton statue at Indianapolis on Memorial Day. He demanded: „ First—Entire federal control of all railroads, whether engaged in interstate or In local commerce. Secon d—Tliat tie federal government shall control the amount of capital In* vested in a road and the issuance of stocks and bonds. Third—That railroad lawyers keep out of politics and that they register as lobbyists when they appear before Legislature*. , Fourth—-That railroads shall be prevented from doing anything else than a transportation business. Fisth —That criminal prosecution be instituted against any man who plunders others by issuing great masses of securities and sells them for fraudulent or selfish interest instead of applying the money so acquired to the legitimate use of the road on whose property the securities were issued. Sixth —That the honest railroad manager, whose aim Is to maintain a high standard of efficiency in his road and seek an honest and legitimate rethrn on the money invested, be protected. * Seventh—That railroads be allowed to acquire connecting lines, but forbidden to combine witfc parallel lines. Eighth—That there be public traffic agreements in the Interest of the people, subject to the approval of the interstate commerce commission. , Ninth—That there be physical valuation of railroad properties, such valuations not to be retroactive, and present securities to be tested by the laws under which they were issued. “There can be no swerving from the bourse that has been mapped out in the legislation actually enacted and in the messages in which I have asked for further legislation,” said the President “We best serve the interests of the honest railway men when we announce that we will follow out precisely this course. It is the course of real, of ultimate conservatism. There will be no halt in the forward movement toward a full development of this policy; and those who wish us to take a step backward or to stand still, if their wishes were realized, would find that they had Invited an outbreak of the very radicalism they fear. There must be progressive legislative and administrative action for the correction of the evils which every sincere man must admit to In the past.”