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The Commoner
DBCBMBa
,i for the. execution of such plans except by
Sal contract; with their directory some of
?hom will consent while some' will not, and
Jhprefore. does not afford sufficient authority to
nndertako improvement upon tae scale which it
would be necessary to undertake then. .
Fvery approach to 'this difficult subject matter
nf decision brings us face to face, therefore, with
this unanswered question: What is it rights that
wo should do with the railroads, in the interest
of the public and fairness to their owners?
Let me say at once that I have no answer
ready. The only thing that is perfectly clear to
mo is that it is not fair either to the public or
to the owners of the railroads to leave the ques
tion unanswered and that it will presently be
come my duty to relinquish control of the roads,
' even before the. expiration of the statutory
period, unless there should appear some clear
prospect in the meantime of a legislative solu:
tion. Their release would at least produce one
element of a solution, namely certainty and
quick stimulation of private initiative.
I believe that it will he serviceable for mo to
set forth as explicitely as possible the alternative
courses that lie open to our choice.
OLD CONDITIONS IMPOSSIBLE
We can simply-release the roads and go back
to the old conditions of private management,
unrestricted competition and multiform regula
tion by both state and federal authorities; or
we can go to the opposite extreme and establish
complete government control, accompanied, if
necessary, by actual government ownership, or
we can adopt an intermediate course of modified
private control under a more unified and affirma
tive public regulation and nnder such alterations
of the law as will permit wasteful competion to
be avoided and a considerable degree of unifica
tion of administration to ho effected, as for
example, by regional corporations under which
the railways of definable areas would be in effect
combined in single systems. The only conclusion
that I am ready to state with confidence Is that
it would be a disservice alike of the country and
to the owners of the railroads to return to the
old conditions uncodified. Those are conditions
of restraint without development. There is noth
ing affirmative or helpful about them. .What the
country chiefly needs is that all' its means of
transportation Bhould be developed, its railways,
its waterways, its highways, and its countryside
roads. Some new elements of policy, therefore,
are absolutely necessary necessary for the
service of the purpose, necessary for the release
of credit to those who are administering the
railways, necessary for the protection of. their
security holders. The old policy may bo changed
much or little, but surely it cannot be wisely
left as it was. I hope that the congress will have
a complete and Impartial study of the whole
problem instituted at once and prosecuted as
rapidly as possible, I stand ready and anxious
to release the roads from the present control
and I must do so at a very early date If by
waiting until the statutory limit of time is
reached I shall be merely prolonging the perfbd
or doubt and uncertainty which is Hurtful to
every interest concerned.
THE TRIP TO PARIS '
I welcome this occasion to announce 'to the
congress my purpose to join in Paris the rep
resentatives of the governments with which we
nave been associated in the war against the
wi A empIres fr e purpose of discussing
wuu them the main -features of the treaty of
55?iCe realIzo the great inconveniences that
nf Li . d my leavinS the country, particularly
at tnis time, but the conclusion that it was my
paramount duty to go has been forced upon me
ey considerations which I hope will seem as
conclusive to you as they have seemed to me.
w lliQd governments have accepted the
n ? peaco" which I outlined to the congress
ontne 8th of January last, as the central empires
uiso have, and very reasonably desire' my per
sonal counsel in -their interpretation and applica
,' anf Jt highly desirable that I should give
morJf0 that tho sincere desire of our govern
Imvli , ?ntrlbute without selfish purpose of
wV tho settlements that will be of common
fniifr ,aU the natlns concerned may be made
fully manifest
at?Si Peace SQttlements which are now to bo
to iia UI!on arQ of transcendent importance both
of ? tt0 tUo rest of the world,, and I know
iW,i bUBlne3s or interest which should take
S? . TItf. gallant men of .-our
med ces bn land and B(?a' have consciously
HER DREAM WILL SOON CXME TRUE
.tj
(Copyright, 1918, International Feature Service.)
Chicago Herald-Examiner.
fought for the ideals which they know to bo
the ideals of their country; I have sought -to
express those ideals; they have accepted my
statements of them as tho substance of their
own thought and purpose, as the associated gov
ernments have accepted them; I owe it to them
to see to it, so far as in me lies, that no false or
mistaken interpretation ia put upon them and
no possible effort omitted to realize them. It is
now my duty to play my full part in making
good what they offered their life's blood to ob
tain. I can thir'c of no call to service which
could transcend this.
I shall be in close touch with you and with
affairs on this side of the water, and you will
know all that I do. At my request tho French
and English governments have absolutely re
moved the censorship of cable news which until
within a fortnight they had maintained and
there is now no censorship whatever exercised
at this end except upon attempted trade com
munications with enemy countries. It has been
necessary to keep an open wire constantly avail
able between Paris and the department of state
and another between France and the department
of war. In order that this might bo done with
the least possible interference with the other
uses of the cables, I have temporarily taken over
the control of both cables in order that they may
bo used as a Bingle system. I did so at the ad
vice of the most experienced cable officials, and
I hope that the results will justify my hope that
the news of the next few months may pass with
the utmost freedom and with the least possible
delay from each side of the sea to the other.
' May I not hope, gentlemen of tho congress,
that in tho delicate tasks I shall have to perform
on the other side of the sea In my efforts truly
and faithfully to interpret the principles and
purposes of the country we love, I may have the
encouragement and the .added strength of your
united support? I realizo tho magnitude and
difficult duty I am undertaking. I am poignantly
aware of Its grave responsibilities. I am the
servant of the nation. I can have no private
thought or purpose of my own in performing
such an errand. I do so to give the best that
Is in me to the common settlement which I must
now assist in arriving at the conference with the
other wording heads of the associated govern
ments. I shall count upon your friendly countenance
and encouragement. I shall not bo inaccessible'.
The cables and the wireless will render me avaJJ
able for any counsel or service you may desire
of me, and I shall be happy in the thought that
I am constantly in touch with tjie weighty mat
ters of domestic policy with which we shall have
to deal. I shall make my absence as brief as
possible and shall hope to return with the happy
assurance that it has been possible to translate
into action the great ideals for which America
has striven. ,
May be we haven't got the straight of it, but
the idea we gather from all of the talk and
turmoil is that there are a lot of senators who
believe that their health would be greatly im
proved by a sea voyage to France, but they are
not real certain that they are physically- able to
stand the trip.
r reedom or blavrj
of the Seas?
From the Springfield, Mass., Republican;
Rccont attacks from American sources upon
tho principle of the freedom of the sea liava
been surprising, In view of tho fuel that under
all administrations, since our constitutional gov
ernment was established 130 years ago, tnl&'prln-i
clplo has been supported without tho lat devia
tion. Evon the last repuKtc a secretary of fctate,
Mr. Knox, ."ought for tho freedom of the enrt
in a very real sonso in Booking to havd an inter
national prize court established, to which appeald
could bo mado from decisions of national prlzo
courts. If anyone will consult the 12th Haguo
convention of 1907, ho will learn what Seoretary
Knox later on contended for and very" nearly ,
won. Article 3 reads:
Tho judgmonts of national prize courts may
bo brought before tho Internationa! prlzo-courtr
1. When tho judgment of tho national prize
courts affects tho property of a noutral power
or Individual; J
2. When tho judgment affects onomy property
and relates to--- i
(a) Cargo on board neutral ship;
(b) An onomy ship captured in tho territorial
waters of a noutral powor;whon that power has
not made tho captures the subject of a diplom
atic claim;
(c) A claim based upon, the allegation that
the seizure has been effected) In violation, oltlicc
of tho provisions of a convention in force be-
twoon the belligerent powers, pr of an enactment
issued by tho belligerent captor. r -:
Tho appeal against tho judgmont of !thtf na
tional court can bo based on the ground1' that
the judgment was wrong, either in fact" br iri
law. ' '
It will bo observed that the subject Shatter
for tho proposed international prize court don-
corned property, either cargoes of merchandise1
or merchant sh'ps, captured on tho high sdafe in
time of war by belligerents; The establishing
of such 4i court would haYO minimized' tho
slavery of the seas for, tho owners of private
property, especially neutral owners, in war time,
and thus havo promoted the freedom of the soau
by liberating commerce from tho one-sided and
partial decisions of national prlzo courts wh'ch
are controlled usually by'TuIes and laws shaped
in the national interest. It was perhaps tho
severest disappointment of Mr. Knox's tenure of
office as secretary of state when that Interna
tional court was prevented from being estab
lished by tho refusal of the British parliament
before tho great war began to approve the posi
tion taken in support of it by the Asquith gov
ernment. -
The freedom of the seas Is now being assailed
by some of the critics of tho President in thin
country as something vague p.nd nebulous. They
know well what It means in the language of
American diplomacy, as consistently used since
Benjamin Franklin's day. The princ'plo has ap
plied, broadly spea!tl. g, to private proporty on
the high seas. Secretary I.Iarcy in 1856 stated
the principle as it was long understood, in these
wordfi:
That the private proporty of subjects and
citizens of a belllgorent on the high seas shall
be exempted from seizure by public armed ves
sels of tho other belligerent, except it be con
traband. It was precisely the principle in that form,
which congress Indorsed in 1904 at. the instance
of President Roosevelt. Join tho familiar form
ula as stated by Marcy to the idea of tho Inter
national prlzo court as favored W Secretary
Knox and we get an American doctrine of tho
freedom of tho seas, which it is absurd now to
call "tho Wilsonian doctrine,'' as a Yale profes
sor lias recently called it in the apparently
studied effort to brand it as a Wilson hobby or
vagary.
President Wilson's contribution to the subject
is really in tho direction taken by Secretary
Knox in tho Taft administration seeking, to estab
lish a supreme prize court of appeals by inter
national agreement. The prize cou of Mr.
Knox'3 dream would obviously find a" place in
the larger project for a league of nations. The
President, In fact, made the freedom of the seas
clearly contingent upoa tho league of nations
(Continued on page 11)
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