OCR Text |
Show GOVERNMENT CONTROL. The chairman of the interstate commerce com-merce commission, Winthrop M. Ian-iels, Ian-iels, has predicted that if the .govern-, ment does not retain entire management manage-ment or control of the railroads after the war, it will insist upon:'Supervising the. financing of the, roads and the elimination of competitive waste. Mr. Daniels doubts if ' the present government govern-ment managemont ; without ownership could be continued satisfactorily in peace times. Many others have grave doubts regarding the 1 desirability or feasibility of government ownership, and the problem presented remains to be threshed out in. congress. In the years gone by many farmers loudly demanded de-manded that'the failrdads be taken over by the government, and. Mr. Bryan, following', his defeat on the free' silver ' platform in 1896, attempted to make, government ownership an issue. The project failed, and since that time the railroads diave been more or less hectored hec-tored and interfered with by state commissions, com-missions, with the interstate commerce commission actively engaged in the same work. Government supervision of financing with a forced elimination of waste, would be better than full government govern-ment control or ownership, but whatever what-ever happens to the railroads in the future, they should not be left at the mercy of forty-eight separate and distinct dis-tinct state commissions, many of whose members have little or no actual knowledge knowl-edge of the intricacies , involved in the operation of the transportation systems of the .country. We are inclined to think that' government ownership of railroads will be one of the big issues of the next presidential campaign. If so, we hope the question will be definitely defi-nitely settled. |