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Show WANTS FIESIDEIT TO CALLC0IFE1EICE Senator Newlands of Nevada Believes Transportation Issue Is-sue to Be Paramount. "WASHINGTON, Oct. 26. The summoning sum-moning by President Roosevelt of a national couferonco of the various interests in-terests connected with tho transporta- tion quostion, with a view to restoring the" confidence of investors, was suggested sug-gested in a speech beforo the Univer- j sity club at Washington by Senator Ncwlands, of Nevada, vice chairman of the Inlaud Waterways Committee. Mr. Newlands has .just returned from the trip down the Mississippi with the President and the commission. "Confidence in American corporations corpora-tions has been shaken both here and abroad," said the Senator. "Investors are alarmed and improvements absolutely abso-lutely necossary to the transportation of tlie country "arc held up. We should immediately have a conference at Washington Wash-ington devoted exclusively tc the transportation question in its broadest extent and composed of men expert in the question, ,and including governors of States and State railroad commissions. commis-sions. After debate and deliberation the country will be astonished to find how few the points of difference are between the transportation managers on the one side and the public on the other. The national and the State governments have knocked together tho eads of railroads in such fashion as to make them realize the' are simply public agents, and they will come to such a conference in a much more conciliatory con-ciliatory mood than heretofore. I "believe "be-lieve in reconstructive rather than punitive puni-tive or retaliatory action. We should look to the future and organize a transportation trans-portation S3'stem embracing both tho railways and the waterways which will onlist the harmonious action of the nation and tho States. If a proper system were created, most of the evils now complained of would disappear. A system of transportation could be easily devised which would enlist the best powers of the national government without infringing upon the powers of the State. Says President Is Right, "President Roosevelt, is right in saving sav-ing that tho great problem of "the future is to find a sovereign for this giant railway merger, whose operations roach over our entire country and out to foreign for-eign countries. Combination is a part of the economic development of transportation. trans-portation. The thing complained of is not the fact of combination, but the methods of combination, unrestrained by adequate laws and fruitful of overcapitalization, over-capitalization, frauds on stockholders and imposition on shippers. "Shall we break up theso mergers and resolve them into their integral parts, bounded -and circumscribed in their operations b- State linca? This would bo a national calamitj-, as grievous griev-ous to the public as to the railroads. What sovercigu power, then, is to creato and sanction these mergers? New Jersey? Jer-sey? Proper control of combination can never be accomplished so long as wo permit corporations to re-sort to the .States of least public virtue for their powers. Is it not clear that united action can only be accomplished in tne constitutional through the union of States represented by Congress. Not Political Question. "The question is not one of partisan politics. As a Democrat, I believe in local self-government and beneficial exercise ex-ercise of all1 State powers, but it is equally good democratic doctrine that the powers granted to the Nation should be fully exercised in the interest of all the people. "We should drop excitement, reprisal and retaliation and get down to the question whether these mergers shall oc broken up and resolved into their orig-iutd orig-iutd olemonts of purely State railroads, or whether consolidation properly controlled con-trolled shall be permitted. The latter can only be wisely accomplished by the action of the Congress of the United Slates. "It is curious how divided public sentiment seems to be as to the control con-trol of the railways, and how united it is regarding control of the waterways. Both are useful in itorslale and foreign commerce, and yet the most ardent advocate ad-vocate of State sovereignty as to thu railways admits the sovereign' of the Nation as to the waterways and insists upon the exercise of its sovereign powers. pow-ers. What difference is there between a great intcrstato river and the great interstate railway, which runs along its .banks, so far as national powers :iro concerned?" Referring to the Inland Watenvaj-s commission, Sonntor Newlands said: "I am more and more impressed with the importance of tho work and with the wisdom of preparing a broad and comprehensive plan for the improvement of our inland waterways, enhancing not only the Mississippi valley, but. all the navigable rivoi's of tho "Gulf and tho Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as sheltered waterways along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts," |