feu
The Conservative.
The methods em.
SHIP SUBSIDY
LOBBY , ployed to secure
the passage of the
ship subsidy bill are enough , if all other
evidence were lacking , to arouse sus *
picion as to the integrity of the measure.
Expensive lobbies are not required to
obtain meritorious legislation. The
most costly lobby that has ever been in
Washington is now being maintained in
the interests of the subsidy bill. The
shipowners and shipbuilders , conscious
of the prejudice throughout the country
against their attempt to plunder the
public treasury and wishing to counteract
the influence of a hostile press , have
established a press bureau , the most
elaborate ever employed in behalf of
any measure. Of this new move a
special to the Chicago Record says :
"Methods are being employed in
behalf of this measure that have never
been known before
Press Bureau.
at the national
capital. In Washington a press bureau
has been organized for the purpose of
supplying the newspaper correspondents
with information bearing on the progress
of the bill. This press bureau is run
exactly on the lines of & press bureau of
a national campaign and the men
managing it are the same that managed
the press bureau for Senator Hanna in
the last campaign. In addition to this
a literary bureau is engaged in shipping
to all parts of the country copies of the
speeches made in support of the subsidy
bill , together with committee reports in
favor of the measure and arguments
gathered from various sources. The
speeches of Senators Frye and Hanna in
favor of this bill have been sent out
literally by the million.
"In addition to this another bureau
has been directly in correspondence with
the leading members of business , com
mercial and financial exchanges , boards
of trade , and similar organizations , with
a view of impressing upon them ad
vantages of the shipping bill and asking
them to have their organizations take
action. As a result these bodies all over
the country are meeting and passing
resolutions in favor of the bill. "
In its annual report
KATE MAKING.
port , made the
first of the year , the Interstate Com
merce Commission recommends that
congress increase its powers to include
the privilege of rate making. "It is
wrong and intolerable , " says the com
mission , "that a classification committee
or a railway manager should be able by
a stroke of the pen , without consulta
tion with the public , without even in
forming the public , to arbitrarily change
the rates at which freight traffic shall
be handled. "
This observation of the commission
suggests the query , is it not "wrong and
intolerable" for
Query.
your grocer ,
butcher or haberdasher to "arbitrarily ,
without consultation with the pub
lic" raise the prices , respectively of
sugar , beef steak or neckties ? If it is
right for merchants to thus fix the price
atr which they sell goods , wherein is it
"wrong and intolerable" for those , who
have their capital invested in railroads ,
to determine the price at which they
shall carry goods ? Either those , whose
money is invested in transportation
facilities , should have the right to man
age their property or , if the government
would exercise control , it should first
establish its ownership by due compen
sation to the owners of that which they
seek , the exlusive and arbitrary power of
managing.
Referring to this request of the com
mission for additional powers , the Rail
way Age thus discusses the question
from the standpoint of the railway com
panies.
' 'Is it wrong and intolerable always
and without qualification for railway
managers to establish the rates at which
they offer transportation , 'without con
sultation with the public1 Who then
should fix rates , if not the railways that
do the carrying ? Should the right to
manage the property in their charge be
taken from the officials representing
some thousands of railway lines all over
the country and placed absolutely in the
hands of a Government commission ?
Would it not be 'wrong and intolerable'
slightly paraphrasing the commission's
words 'that a Government commission
should be able by a stroke of the pen ,
without consultation with the railways ,
arbitrarily to change the rates at which
freight traffic is handled ? ' This is
what the commission desires authority
to do to take from all the railway
presidents and managers and traffic ex
perts of the country absolutely the final
power of making transportation rates
and to lodge that power in the hands of
six men closeted in Washington from all
practical contact with the vast interests
of which they are made the irresponsible
dictators.
' 'Such seizure national
a by authority
of property rights and individual re
_ , . sponsibil ities
Violates Property , , ,
Rights. would be 'wrong
and intolerable , '
unless justified by gross abuse of their
powers by the railway companies , to the
injury of the state and public. No such
abuse exists. The commission is unfair
in conveying the suggestion that because
the railways have made changes in the
classification sheets some of which have
had the effect of increasing and some of
lowering freight rates , therefore they
have committed a.crime for which the
commission should have the power and
the pleasure to punish them. Why ,
after a period of depression and disaster
to all industrial interests , should there
not be possible a recovery in the prices
for transportation as well as in the prices
of all other commodities ? The appall
ing record of receiverships and fore-
closures shows how capital invested in
railways has suffered ; how much of it
has been wiped out ; how many com
panies have for years failed to pay any
dividend ; how small a profit consider
ing the tremendous risk and uncertainty ,
and compared with many other forms
of investment even the most prosperous
railways have realized. Prohibited by
congress and courts from agreeing
together to maintain living rates the
railways have been destroying each
other by rate wars , and when they try
to restore some of the demoralized tariffs
and return to reasonable methods of
doing business , the Interstate Commerce
Commission cries out that this is 'wrong
and intolerable. '
1 'The commission apparently does not
mean to be unfair. In its last report it
concedes , much more fully than ever
before that with competition unre
stricted and agreement between carriers
prohibited , inequalities and discrimina
tions and losses are bound to exist , and
it intimates a conviction that pooling
agreements are desirablo. It makes no
charge that the restorations which have
been made in the classification sheets
impose rates that are unjust and un
reasonable. But it is the fact that the
railways still have power , 'by a stroke
of the pen , ' to change a rate , even to
lower it , without the authority of the
Interstate Commerce Commission , that
is wrong and intolerable. And so the
commission or some 9f its members
continue to intimate suspicion of the
motives and purposes of the railway
managers , as a class , and without ex
ception , and to agitate the public with
fear of injury and oppression by the
railways unless these peaceful interests
are deprived of the power of self-
government.
"It is in this attitude toward the
transportation interests that the Inter
state Commerce Commission seems to
many good citizens and reasonable men
to be unfair and uncandid. "
SUBSTITUTES FOR SHIP SUBSIDIES.
In the current issue of the Forum , Mr.
Louis Windmuller under the above
caption discusses the ship subsidy bill
now before congress. He calls attention
to the fact that prior to the civil war ,
when sailing vessels were in vogue ,
American ships carried one-third of the
world's commerce , as oaken veseels
could be made cheaper here than any
where else. But when these wooden
ships gave way to iron cruisers we were
supplanted on the seas by Great Britain
on account of her superior resources for
iron manufacture. Mr. Windmuller
proves by a collection of the statistics
for the last ten years of the efficiency of
the merchant marine of the leading
maritime nations that the United States
is again coming to the front and shows
a larger percentage of increase than
Great Britain.
The cause of this is that steel is now
