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Show i IN IDAHO ALSO. The railroad commission rabies is spreading; but, fortunately, it is getting get-ting thin as it spreads. It is a most astonishing thing to see this sentiment breaking out just at this time, when the public and the railroad interests are iu such strenuous effort to find out just what the new railroad regulation and rate law of Congress means, and how best to adjust themselves to it. That is a sweeping, rigid law. It has many provisions, not easy to understand under-stand with precision. The Interstate Commerce Commission is making somo rulings under it that aro harder to understand than the law. Tt will take tho best energies of all concerned, with the help of the courts, several j'cars to get down to" bed rock in this legislation, legisla-tion, so that transportation affairs will once more bo on a fully settled foundation. founda-tion. Ono would naturally suppose that this is enough of unsettlement for ono stroke. Yet. this does uot seem to be the case, so far as political place-hunters and agitators are concerned. So the idea of more Stnto Railway Commissions Commis-sions is pushed. It makes no difference to tho political graftors that the State of Utah, for example, has made no complaint of any matter which a State commission could act upon. Tt is claimed that certain freights from other parts of the country are too high, and therefore there-fore we ought to havo a commission to regulate thorn, But tho two propositions proposi-tions do not connect. As to freights complained of as too high, a State commission com-mission could havo no jurisdiction over them, while as to freights upon which such a commission might act, there is no complaint. And when wo take no-tico no-tico that tho largo preponderance of all freight is interstate transportation, with which such a Stato body could uot possibly havo anything to do, tho sinister motive of tho suggestion that Utah ought to havo a railroad commission commis-sion is at once sccu. But tho placo-huntors placo-huntors arc not daunted at tho showing that they have no case. They want tho offices, as an opportunity for political "spoils," and so that tho roads can be blackmailed and tho shippers bilked to help on the political game. Idaho is situatod precisely as Utah is in this mater, with no use for a railroad commission savo for graft and political sinecures or jobs. And yet, Governor Gooding is to rccommond that tho Legislaturo of that State shall provide pro-vide such a commission, nis demand really is that tho railroads shall get into politics and so defond themselves, or pay such blackmail as tho politicians demand. Tho Governor's political triumph tri-umph in November has evidently incited in-cited him to seek for other worlds to conquor. But in this raid ho may find that tho business interests of tho Stato will put an extinguisher on his warlike humor. |
