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Show ATTORNEY BM1EIS ENDS HIS ARGUMENT Agrees That Railroads Neeid More Revenue; Disagrees as to How to Raise It, WASHINGTON. May 1 Loul.o D. Brnndls. pclal counsel for th. Interstate Inter-state oiuniercc commission in the n per, cent advance rate case, concluded hln argument today. 1 After exhaustive examination of test mony. Mr. Brandels summarized the i uation as follows; "On the whole, the net Income and net operating revenues of the railroads In official of-ficial classification territory are smaller thnn is consistent with :hIr assured prosperity and tho welfare of the community, com-munity, and this Is also true of the Central Cen-tral Freight association and other eastern line?. In view of this fact, it Is desirable steps should be taken as prompt! v as reasonably rea-sonably may he to Increase this not revenue. rev-enue. "As the method proposed by the carriers car-riers for increasing this net revenue Is essentially unsound: that It Is, except as to a small part of the tariffs which have been submitted, contrary to law, and would be. If approved, invalid and exceeding ex-ceeding the powers vested by the congress con-gress In this commission, and as to the small part to which it would be legal to approve them, it would be unwise to the carriers and to the community to approve them. "That there Is nothing In tho conditions of the carriers which should prevent tho adoption of those methods of Increasing their revenues which are conformable and In accordance with their Interests and those of the community, and that there exists and have been Indicated in this record a definite means of increasing increas-ing the revenues without resort to these unsound, largely Illegal and horizontal Increases In-creases In rates." In his argument Mr. Brandels harked back to his statement in the advance rate case of J 010 that the solution of the entire en-tire problem lies almost entirely In "scientific "sci-entific management." which, by conservation conser-vation of effort and resources, should be effectual to overcome any and ail Increases In-creases In costs of ra.w material and labor. la-bor. In adjourning tho sitting. Chairman Harlan of the Interstate commerce commission com-mission announced with what was regarded re-garded as great significance: "This concludes this phase of the case." It has been pointed out that the fundamental funda-mental question of the Inquiry was whether the present revenues of the railroads rail-roads were adequate to their needs. Since a negative answer to that question would end the case, the chairman's announce- ment was accepted as Indicating there will he other phases of the ense In the future, and that the commission proposes to adopt Mr. Brandels's view that the present revenues of iho roads are not adequate. The next phase of the proceedings would be the second question propounded by the commission. "How are the additional revenues to be obtained?" |