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The Commoner
'iPBffi, 1920
The New Railroad
Law
(Continued from Page 7.)
amend the House bill by providing for th fed- .
eral incorporaion of railroads. The avowed pur
pose of the Senate amendment was 'to COMPEL
the federal incorporation-of ALL railroads. The
railroads have desired this for at least twenty
years. President Roosevelt recommended feder
al incorporation in ie of his messages, and the
president of one of the western railroads (which
a legislative committee had recently reported as
capitalized for three times as much as it would
cost to reproduce the road) gave, as his reason
for favoring federal incorporation that it was
the only way to protect the railroad from ' the
"demagogues in the state legislatures."
It seems that the Houso would not stand for
federal incorporation, and the House conference
committee reported that the conference bill
strikes out all of these sections providing for
federal incorporation, re-incorporation.
The senate amendment declared it tobe the
policy of the United States to require the con
solidation of all of the railroads of the country
into not less than twenty nor more than1 thirty
five separate systems and provides that the
transportation board shall prepare a plan for
such a consolidation.
Voluntary consolidation was provided for
within the period of seven years after passage of
the act hut after that period-the board was given
power to COMPEL such consolidation. The
House did not consent to COMPULSORY consoli
dation but agreed to VOLUNTARY consolida
tion. The Interstate Commerce Commission is
authorized to permit the acquisition Dy one car
rier 'of the control of another by lease or pur
chase of stock; The Commission is expected to
preserve, "existing rates and competition as far
as possible," but it is not always possible to
PRESERVE COMPETITION when competing
lines are allowed to consolidate.
The Senate amendment discloses the purpose
of the railroad managers to create, as soon as
permission can be secured, the most gigantic pri
vate monopoly the world has ever known. If the
existing railroad systems could be consolidated
into from twenty to thirty-five systems, the next
step would be to reduce the number to fifteen or
twenty, then to four or five and then to one. If
we are to have private ownership we might as
well understand now as later that there is no end
to the consolidation scheme until all are under
one management. The railroad, reaching into
almost every county and, in most cases, into
nearly all parts of the country, secures such an
immense number of retainers lawyers, railroad
Physicians, railroad experts and railroad poli
ticians as to become an almost invincible pow
er in politics. Sooner or later, the public will be
compelled to choose between "government own
ership of the railroads" and "railroad ownership
of the government," as the issue was stated many
years ago.
The House was not ready to go as far a the
Senate, (altho' on some questions- it was the
Senate that refused to concede as much to the
railroads as the House demanded), but the
House consented to VOLUNTARY consolidation,
and voluntary consolidation has in view the
same end, namely, one great private monopoly,
jvith something like 'twenty billions of dollars
Dack of it, interwoven with the banking influ
ences and the influences of the trusts.. What an
unequal combat it will be when the unorganized
masses attempt to protect themselves from such
Mghly organized capital with its thoroughly
warned representatives and its secret hold
yn the aveues of information! Last
Jtater the railroads entered upon a syste
matic effort to lay their side before the
public thru the newspapers, and the amount
y were prepared to spend was prob
:,,ly one hundred times greater than any
sum that could be raised from all the patrons for
? Purpose of presenting the patrons' side. Wpien
ne public read the bill as the Senate intended it
e, or oven as the House permitted it to be,
juo People will understand how impossible it is
r tum to have anything like an equal chance
w reasonable justice, with the railroad systems
rm!e hands of Private corporations.
fhe Senate agreed to the House provision with
33s,sr.s
been fww r7?ul,rai l railroads have
Sf P?gnf l g ff tWs PrIv"eBo for at least a
2?S mu C(lntury- I remember when they
had a bill before Congress some twenty-five
of the fight was led by the president of the B &
.' ? been elected by Congress and had
the privilege of the floor, the fight being made
before he took his seat. The phrase "subject to
the approval of the Commission" is used to as
sure the public that no harm will be done the pa
trons of the roads, but two facts stand out so
prominently that oven a wayfaring man ought
to be able to see them.
First, when the question of consolidation and
pooling is left to the decision of the members of
the Interstate Commerce Commission, the rail
roads are given an immense financial, interest
m congressional, senatorial and presidential
elections. Just in proportion as the power of the
Interstate Commerce Commission is increased,
the control of that commission becomes a po
litical prize for which the railroads are sure to
contend. If they are permitted to pick out a
man for president and by the power of their in
fluence secure his nomination and election, it is
reasonable to suppose that ho will be influenced
by the opinions of the railroad magnates as to
the fitness of aspirants for positions on the Inter
state Commerce Commission. The big railroad
attorneys are prominent men, known to the pub
lic, and the public does not always remember
that a fundamental bias can pervert the judg
ment of a very respectable even conscientious
man. A man is often most biased when ho
thinks himself entirely impartial. The new rail
road law gives to the big transportation, lines the
greatest stake in politics they have ever had.
They may be expected to take part in every con
gressional fight, in every senatorial contest and
in every presidential campaign. Working in the
dark rather Uian in the open, it may bo expected
that they will exert a potent influence in politics
as it is now certain they did in the campaign of
1918.
But the other fact is even more important,
namely, that the railroads are now able to cap
ture the last citadel which defends competition.
Competition has been weak enough, heretofore,
but even the semblance of competition is to be
destroyed. Authorized pooling is a declaration
that in the case of the railroads, competition Is
impossible. The railroads become a monopoly, a
private monopoly, and therefore the railroad
monopoly falls under the condemnation of a
velSablished democratic principle namely,
that a private monopoly is indefensible and in
tolerable. The railroads are hastening the day when the
ouestion of private monopoly vs. government
ownership will be the paramount issue before the
counti y 'When- that issue is understood there can
be on y one side to it, and that the peoples-side.
then eoymentoymenm gtroke tQ
the next step, ft reuerience shows that warn
awaken the pu wic. i Solomon says that
ings are dually unav ,i mg .
"the wise num forsee tHtn e e v punj8ned."
self, while the toolishpajj on an Pg
truth, but t is a de against lt. It
foresee the evil an i But, blessed be popu
passes on and is Ps V0TjSBD, THE PEO
jar government. WHb a T ALL
PLE HAVfci" yR INTELLIGENCE DE-
PbU "n THEIR INTELLIGENT ur,
WRONGS. AND TOWtt jf m& n&yf
VISES EPFECTIVB REMJ &
railroad law HU""T " fronts them, the Kepuu
of the nger that confronts n
lican victory of 1018 may i BRyAN
guise.
THE LASTING ORATOR
braska got $e $J? 0 Lincoln two years be
Bryan. He had come to Qf hig oratorIcai
fore, Dt only a tew na g 8trug.
ability when, ' Suce to advertise, the
gling young lawyer a en awarded him the
First congressional distri & DemocraUc nomi.
otherwise profitless nouu
nation for congress. In that campaign of 1890
the boy orator of tho Platte emerged. Tho dis
content roflectod in tho populist movement was
just getting undor way. It loosened tho moor
ings of enough Republicans to make thorn sus
ceptiblo to a silver tongue. Mr. Bryan was
elected, mado his tariff speech hit In congress
and was re-elected. That is tho only elective
public office ho has ever hold. But ho has talked
on, garnering throo presidential nominations as
ho went, always defeated, yot always heard.
Night before last, Lincoln peoplo packed tho
auditorium to hear again tho volco they havo
heard for thirty years. It was tho old, old
theme, politics. Nothing new could bo oxpected
of Bryan on Hiat subject. Yot tho crowd camo,
stayed, applauded and went homo fooling that
it had been well cntortnlnod. Tho familiar
sixty-year-old man had charmod his hearers as
effectively as did tho frosh youth of thirty
Surely, an orator who can hold his crowd for
thirty years is an orator indeed.
Many who sat him thru on Friday night
passed thru their minds a score of such appear
ances. Thero were his debates with Conncll,
with Field, with Thurston, tho speoch to a
jammed, shabby city when ho came homo with
the presidential nomination in '90, tho birthday
dinners, tho great speech of 1910 when, refusing
to lead his party into delirium tremens, ho bolted
Dahlman. Tho Bryan prosent beforo them rep
resented a host of Bryans behind them. Yet tho
old Bryan prosent had all tho power of tho
young Bryan past.
It was possible to see why Mr. Bryan is easy
to listen to. One might bo at tho remotest part
of the auditorium or oven just outsido tho door,
and whether he listened or not, tho Bryan volco
boomed easily into his cars. To bo an orator
one must be born with a voice. But that isn't
enough. It is easy to "get" Mr. Bryan. Hla
thought is predlgestod. Ono has no wearing
ramifications to follow. Ho does not put hf
hearers to tho labor of putting two and two to
gether. If one misses a sentence at an outburst
of applause ho has lost only a sentence The
next will bo complote in itself. Stories come
often enough to pepper the dish. Tho general
geniality of the thought Is sufficiently broken "by
notes of defiance and denunciation. And tlioa
the fur is smoothed the right way. Mr. Bryan'
can defy an audience of politicians with grand
effect when ho feels like it. But ho never defies
an audience of common folks. If ho cannot
agree with them, he at least avoids rasping them.
In his thirty years of talking to us, Mr. Bryan
has seldom had a majority of his own Nebraska
with him. Yet the political generation which
came on tho stage thirty years ago will find on
reflection that no man of any party has woven
his personality into its period as has Bryan. His
has been the dominant note In Nebraska and in
more than Nebraska, for much of that time. Wo
may not agree with Bryan. We may not vote
for him. But after ho is gone we shall doubt
less agree that it was our fortune to have wit
nessed the rise and extraordinary duration of
one of the most ocmpelllng orators of all time.
Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln.
BOOKS RECEIVED
Stabilizing the Dollar. A plan to Stabilize tho
General Price Level Without Fixing Individual
Prices By Irving Fisher, Professor of Political
Economy in Yale University. Ex-President of
the American Economic Association The Mac
millan Company, Publishers, New York. Price
?3.50. , ,
The Railroad Problem. A proposed plan for
an undivided administration of the railroadlsm
for promoting competition in railroad service;
and for stimulating local initiative in railroad
Development. By Walter W. Davis, Great Neck,
LThe World 1920 Almanac and Encyclopedia,
TRflued by The Press -Publishing Co., Pulitzer
Bid., New York. Single Copies 35 cents. By
Mail 50 cents.
Tho Trinity and The Deity of Christ. A
Bible Study. By Rev. Edwin Barneston, Cohoc
tcn, N. Y., R. F. D. 3. Price 25 cents.
The Lincoln Cabin and Other Poems. By,
Saxe Churchill Stimson. Author of The Trench
Lad. Published by the Author, Milwaukee, Wis.
The Economic Consequences of the Peace. By
John Maynard Keynes, C. B. Representative of
the British Treasury at the Peace Conference.
Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.
407 West 117th St., New York.
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