Show I REPLY TO BRYAN LETTER Conservative Co View of Railroad Rate RateMaking RateMaking Making Makin by Legis l ion I II I DIFFICULTIES TIES IN THE WAY I ISOME I II SOME QUESTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONSTITUTIONAl POWERS POWE S M W YORK Sept pt The rhe reply f of ofF NEW F the conservative wing of the Democratic party arty to W VT J bry bryans Bryns ans ns recent open lutter letter to the president predent on railroad rate legislation te Ia I I con contained contained tamed in an article by Richard Olney Otney in m the October number of the North American Review published today In what is ii practically his lda first public ut utterance utterance Utterance terance in two years j for foi former former mer secretary of ot state tate presents pre ent his hi final judgment against the proposed legislation In the form forni of a brief brier coy cov covering CO ering not only the law but the public polity POliCY involved in the agitation The following are some of the s ent fea features features features tures of Mr Olney argument Railroads the great reat Carriers I The importance pf the ratemaking power is not to be considered simply in its relation to the carrier The most important bearing of 01 o the power powei 1 Iii is upon the public interests the carrier serves It is a matter ma lter of common knowledge of which the time courts cours i take cognizance without proof that the great carriers c of the present day are axe the railroads It is 18 equally a matter of common knowledge that the th rates charged by bythe bythe bythe the railroads affect all classes cla of the community that they determine very largely the outcome of ot o all aU private en enterprises enterprises and that upon them hinges only too tol often the material welli if not the very existence exl tence ence of towns and cities and seaports and large sections of ot country Surely a power the exercise of which is fraught with such suh conse consequences consequences is it not to bp b classed legally or practically with the power of deter determining determining determining mining the cup quality of ot teas The latter may ma well be delegated to an ex executive executive executive officer or board But BUl to dele dole delegate delegate gate the former the ultimate rate power for railroads to such suo an au officer or board r e a a due del by the 1 a of Us ItU I tf most I important I In discussing the ctr of govern sovern ment mont regulation upon railroads Mr MI Olney says The situation to be anticipated then is that private prop properties properties and representing government in investments Investments Investments vestments aggregating billions illions of dol dollars lars will find timid themselves them controlled in inthe inthe inthe the vital matter of their charges ch ne not noty by y their private owners but by two public boards one representative of local Interests and anti the other of nation national al interests interest and both antagonistic to the interests of the private owners con concerned concerned concerned The two boards w will vIii ill aim at the lowest possible rates each in behalf of the particular business under tinder its charge and will therefore be in con constant constant constant stant rivalry with each other in the endeavor to extort from the carrier the best service at the smallest cost Un Under Under der del these conditions anything nn like skillful just reasonable or stable rate rat making becomes impossible A situa situation situation sItuation tion is created intolerable alike to tie the t e carrier and to the public and the sure I outcome unless the whole scheme of government ratemaking be abandoned is government ownership Government Ownership the Goal Government ownership of all an i rail ail railroads railroads roads is obviously the goal toward which some of the government rate makers are aie striving while others it if not welcoming it and not working for fur forit forit it profess not to hear it and proclaim that it would at all events be an im mi improvement provement upon the present status point to existing instances of or government ownership of ot railroads the one claiming that the results to the public are distinctly di beneficial the theother theother theother other that they are at least leut not as detrimental as is sometimes declared But when government ownership of the railroads of ot the country is seriously considered our OUI dual political system is Ii at onie olice seen to present problems of the time gravest gra vest character The few and com coin comparatively unimportant railroads that are aie wholly Intel Interstate state may mav be properly ignored Every livery railroad of conse consequence consequence quence is engaged in both kinds of ot transportation in transportation tation that begins and ends in a single state and andin in transportation that passes beyond state lines Hence if government own on ownership of at railroads be regarded as tho the inevitable sequence of ratemaking the first question is i which government is it that is to own the railroads the state or 01 tho the United States Must Also Control the Highways The significance and importance of the inquiry continues Mr Olney are apparent if It we remember that the th railroad is only one species of high highway highway highway way and that what is true of railroads must be true of ordinary highways The jurisdiction of the national gov government government government must be the same in both cases If It is competent for or the na nar national government under tho the commerce commet clause to own and operate all aU the great grat railroads of the country it u t ty Continued on Page 2 C 1 REPLY TO BRYAN LETTER Continued from Page 1 also aso competent for tor it to own or control and operate all nU the great highways of the country countr Is It by any possibility true that the national government has been granted any such powers that as respects ev cv every every ery cry road or street In the th country which Is a link in Interstate communication the national government may at its option take complete possession and control may direct the mode of its con construction construction construction its grades the sort of ve ye vehicles hides by which It may be used may in short assume its entire management and operation in all the most minute details Nothing could be more revo revolutionary revolutionary revolutionary in practice nothing more contradictory of the views customarily held It Is necessary necessary to consider most carefully therefore whether the pow powers powers ers era In lb question are actually conferred on o the national government it being conceded as it must be that the power can be deduced If at all only from the commerce clause of the constitution In summing Bumming up the opposition to the proposed legislation Mr Olney reached the following conclusions Ours is a government In both state and nation by political poll parties and to political ratemaking for railroads ratemaking by politicians animated by partisan motives and working for Cor partisan ends the objections of eco ceo economic economic and business character and on tile the score of ot public policy polley generally are areas areas as usa assiduous as they should prove in itt insuperable The purpose of the present paper Is Isto isto to point out that besides such objections objections railroad ratemaking by the na national government presents legal and constitutional difficulties of the most serious character It raises issues which concerti concert the division of power between the several states and the United States which have not been fully and finally passed upon by the national supreme court and which if It submitted to that tribunal half or even a quarter of pf a century ago would In alt all human probability have been determined ad to the Jurisdiction of the gen general eral government |