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Show UTILITIES BILL. .'What havoc the democratic administration's adminis-tration's public utilities bill would inflict in-flict 'upon Utah may be surmised by considering what has happened to the entire- country in the last few years as the result of narrow-minded legislation legisla-tion directed against the railroads. The country is reaping the disaster sown by well-meaning but impractical reformers who thought that, the lower the freight rates the better for the farmers. Low maximum freight rates and 2-cent pas- I senger rates were put into effect in ! many states and thereby railroads were denied the funds for expansion, im-, im-, provement and equipment, j The car shortage today is directly i traceable to the fanaticism of these re- formers. And even now comparatively I few among the political class realize what the penalizing of the railroads has done to the country by way'uf injury, j The economic effects are seldom pointed ' out, but Lhe car shortage furnishes such an excellent illustration of the unwis- dom of innovators that some of its im-1 im-1 mediate aud remote consequences should be mentioned. The car shortage has limited the business busi-ness of the country. The German submarine sub-marine warfare against shipping has Dot been nearly so ruinous to the commerce of Great Britain as the rate and regulation regula-tion warfare against the railroads has been to the business of the United States.- The torpedo destroys a ship and its cargo. The punitive rate prevents pre-vents a ear from being built and placed 1 on a railroad line, aud the cargoes : which could have been shipped on that , car might just as well be at the bottom of the sea so far as present prosperity is concerned. The reformers and innovators have blockaded the business of the United States. They have hurt every bod' in the country, themselves included, save for what they can make out of the business busi-ness of being politicians. Owing to unprecedented world conditions, con-ditions, the railroads have been able in the last two years, despite the millstones tied around their necks by the legislatures legisla-tures of the states, to keep hemselves above the surfaee and to make gains. Their surpluses will be expended largelv for new equipment to take care of the business of the country, but business is certain to contract, sotpewhat after the war and in the next decade there will be the usual uj and downs. Instead of preparing for the lean times by giving the railways anil the corporations a chance, the legislators iu Utah are getting get-ting ready to mulct all public utilities. They are getting ready to make Utah an undesirable place for investment. They art; getting ready to deal all corporations cor-porations the deadly blows that paralyzed par-alyzed the :aiIroads when the reformers reform-ers becau their crusade about a dozen vears ago. The injury to the raiboads is now reflected in the limitations placed on general business by the shortage of equipment. The injury of a costly and ! .expensive public utilities law to the cor- porations of the state will be reflected I by hard times in Utah a few years hence. I It is almost impossible to believe one '8 senses when one reads some of the pro-' pro-' visions of the proposed law. At a time .when all departments of government bhould retrench three commissioners are j provided for at a salary of $S00O a year , each, $3000 more than the governor receives. re-ceives. But this might not be a bad investment if able men could be obtained ob-tained to minimize as much as possible I the evils of the law. Moreover, the 1 fixed salary is a limitation upon expen- diture, but that is only the beginning ! of the cost provided for by this preposterous prepos-terous iincasure. The commission may appoint a secretary at a salary it can determine de-termine and may employ such engineers, accountants, statisticians, bureau chiefs, division heads, assistant inspectors, clerks, experts, lawyers and other subordinates subor-dinates it may deem necessary, and fix the compensation. Manifestly, there is no limit of expense beyond which tho commission cannot go and by the provisions provi-sions of the bill the commission can make a public utility out of almost anything any-thing and hire inspectors, bureau chiefs, clerks, lawyers and experts for each new department created by itself. If the bill becomes a law a gigantic commission with scores of bureaus and thousands of employees will be employed em-ployed to run the business of the state's corporations, and not merely those corporations cor-porations which can fairly be designated desig-nated as public utility corporations. The overhead expense on business today has attained appalling proportions, but the Democratic administration measure would add tremendously to this overhead over-head expense, for the corporations themselves them-selves must pay the way of the luxurious lux-urious commission and its army of retainers. re-tainers. In the transition period after the war business must have security if it is to survive amid the shoals and rocks of uncertainty. Security for industries will mean full employment for labor. If this security be not given the disaster will not come merely to the corporation, but to the wage earner and to all classes of society. These are times for economy econo-my and caution, not for squandering and radicalism. |