Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1907 — Yoakum's Railroad Panacea. [ARTICLE]

Yoakum's Railroad Panacea.

To realize in practice a union of the people and the railroads under the supervision of the national government is the essence of the proposal made| in an article for the July World’s Work by the railroad magnate, B. F. Yoakum, chairman of the RocST Island board of directors. Taking up the different points of popular agitation, Mr. Yoakum finds, first, that the Hepburn anti-rebate act is effective, Just and wise, and he believes that all good railroad managers will cooperate to enforce it. The valuation of railroad property, he thinks, would not be disadvantageous to the railroads, but 4hat it would not have any practical value in striving at a fair basis of ratemaking. As a railroad man he would not oppose it, and he does not see how the right of the government to make such a valuation can be challenged. He approves of the limitation of future security issues under the eye of the federal government. He explains that the law should make it impossible to gain the profits of railroad construction more than once, and that increasing capital for improvements should be supervised. He believes, further, in the uniformity of accounts so as to make the annual reports of the railroads a basis for public confidence, and he sees no need of having any mystery about the railroad business any more than there is about the accounts of a national bank. While he does not approve of legalizing railroad pools, he thinks that traffic associations should be allowed, because all connecting lines may participate. In conclusion, he urges that the current of existing agitation must be turned into a safer channel or great harm will be done to all interests.