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Show Jqenator atlee pomeeene MO of Ohio, who urges early restora-1 restora-1 1 1 tio f the railroads to their owners. I 1 I .. ; : ' '.' '-''i. i v, t -A PHEREK ASKS flfTUilF BSILS Ohio Senator Opposes Extending Ex-tending Period of Government Gov-ernment Control. CHICAGO, jrareh 19. Senator Pome-rene Pome-rene of Ohio, Democratic member of the senate interstate commerce committee, speaking here tonight before the American Ameri-can Railway .Engineers' society, opposed ; extending the period of government control con-trol over railroads, beyond the twenty-one months provided by congress. He asserted assert-ed that the proposed five-year extension was urged only for the purpose of experimentation. experi-mentation. - yenator Pomerene also urged early restoration res-toration of the functions of the interstate commerce commission with increased powers and the fixing by congress of a fan- standrrrd return' uprn the capital invested in-vested for tiie railroads. "Government control," he asserted, "was intended for war purposes and it ought not to be continued for peace purposes," pur-poses," unless ' some assured not speculative specu-lative or conjectural advantage car be gained thereby. Rail Control Criticised. T submit, the principles of common ihoncnty suggest that this property which does not belong to the government and which docs not belong to Mr. Hlnes (director (di-rector general) should be given baclc to tho owners withtr. a reasonable time, and then if the people of the country have sufficient suf-ficient confidence in government ownership owner-ship to try it, let us pass tho necessary legislation confiscating this properr.y and pay for it as tin honest government ought to pay for It. But we. can not afford to take five years tc evolve plans and while we ore evolving the plans to keep in the gocrnment's possession property which was turned over to it as a war measure for the purpose or experimentation." experimenta-tion." Senator Pomerene criticised the railroad administration for ignoring the Interstate Inter-state commerce commission in rate. making mak-ing and for what he called "reprehensible" "reprehen-sible" .-f.rdcrs setting aside laws. Proved Nothing New. "Not one of them," declared the senator, sena-tor, in referring to the administration's orders, "was issued out of regard for the convenience of the public. Not one of them helped to win the war. All of them aided in arousing a spirit of discontent among the people. I deny that the director di-rector gceral had the power to isaue these orders repealing statutes, but if he had the power, right policy should have forbidden 1'.." Without doubting that the money was needed, Senator l-'omerene said that, in ordering the ::3 per cent freight rate increase, in-crease, more time should have been given to permit shippers to adjust their business busi-ness to meet the advance. This increase, in-crease, hc said, was a good thing for the railroads, hut it resulted in the bankruptcy bank-ruptcy of many penile. Senator J'onve'ruiio expressed a belief ''that the public recognized the need for the general advance in wages for railroad rail-road employees, joint use of terminals, interchange of equipment and greater control over routing of freight, but said that these changes in operation have proven nothing nrt'.. New Work Ordered Stopped. (Chicago Tribune Special Service.,) WASHINGTON. March IP. All ;it I rulroa.l work, inehi.lue-- additions, betterments better-ments and new eonstrucnon. that can possibly be suspended has been ordered stooped because of failure of congress to replenish the railroad administration s revolving re-volving fund by tiie appropriation ot S...0.- Miscontinuance of tins work means la -i ',( , pulling on short time enl-nlovcs enl-nlovcs at a time when the uneruplov-!cnt uneruplov-!cnt situation is giving serious eon- lVThe exienr of th inirtM'.tmwtt W.ln.li2 ""(Continued on Paso i. Column 1.) I POMERENE ASKS RETURAi OF RAILS (Continued from Page One.) cated by the fact that on January 1, 1911), there was still to be expended from the 1918 budget $337,000,000 for additions, addi-tions, betterments, etc., and the federal managers had submitted additional bud- ; gets for 1919 amounting to $325,000,000, a total of $062,000,000. Emergency financing now being done by the railroad administration and railroad rail-road companies only provides for payment pay-ment for equipment and a portion of the S3St.000.000 which the government owes to the railroads on last year's account, and cannot, except in unsual circumstances, circum-stances, provide for the additions and betterments. Permitted to Withdraw. Tn view of the present financial situation, situa-tion, officers of railroad corporations who previously had agreed to finance certain cer-tain additions and betterments chargeable charge-able lo capital account now have indicated indi-cated a desire to review these authorizations. authoriza-tions. After a conference with T. C. Powell, director of the division of capital expenditures of the railroad administration, administra-tion, Howard Elliott, acting chairman of the railway executives' advisory committee, com-mittee, lias sent telegrams to executives of all roads advising them that they are permitted to withdraw previous approvals of projects. A circular sent out by Mr. Powell to federal managers instructs them to give corporate officers full opportunity to review re-view projects chargeable to capital account, ac-count, whether in progress or contemplated, contem-plated, including not only the items in Hio' 1919 budget, but also uncompleted items in the 1918 program. Jn cases where approval is withdrawn or withheld, federal managers are instructed in-structed to discontinue further work, except ex-cept when necessary to insure safety or when it would be more expensive to stop work than to complete it, or when sus- 1 pension would demoralize conditions. 1 |