Show HIGH FREIGHT RATES By L L. L A. A Hollenbeck The Esch Cummins railroad law law- guarantees G 6 per cent profits to the raIlroads and the roads manage to gamble for tor that G 6 p per r cent The recent report of f the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad shows a profit of 1241 per cen profits on its common common common com com- mon stock which means probably the watered stock and usually the Lile preferred preferred preferred pre pre- stock gets more moie per cent The total stock is s million dollars and has a book value of a The road was enabled to add 15 million dollars to Its surplus after aCter paying the G 6 per cent dividend thus making malting a surplus us of million dollars and it Is believed that the scheme is to put a large part of that into a stock dividend 1 by permission permission per per- mission of the Interstate commerce commission in order to evade the inome mome in- in ome omo tax and then compel the pubic public pub pub- ic lic to pay an additional income on the increased watered stock and then ihen of at course the Esch Esch Cummins aw would compel the government to make good a six per cent dividend on the entire stock In connection with this it i is well to note what Senator La Follette re recently recently recently re- re said that When the committee CJ oi on l transportation trans trans- U ins created by the conference of progressives held on December 1 1922 undertook its study of the railroad railroad railroad rail rail- road situation the members were Impressed by the fact that the lee key to almost all of the perplexing problems problems lems of transportation was to be found round in the valuation of the roads They also discovered that the public interests was not being properly or adequately represented In the pro pio proceedings before the interstate COntI commerce commerce com COnt- merce commission I That wh what t the Tha was was c congressional committee round found out strange that the state legislative committee in Utah last winter found out the same thing about the public utilities commission commission com com- mission which commission is patterned patterned patterned pat pat- after the interstate commerce commission The public utilities commission admitted that the public were not being properly or represented In the proceedings proceedings pro pro- ee before the public utilities and asked the legislature legisla- legisla ture ure to make malee a large appropriation o o. that statistics could be compiled o 0 counter those of the big corporations corporations corporations corpora corpora- so that the commission could do justice But the appropriation was vas not made so it is naturally pre pre- pre pie umed that the commission will be bein bein bein in no better position than it was be- be before be be- fore The rhe interstate commerce commission commission commission commis commis- sion has great power and it seems to fall far short of what it was supposed supposed supposed sup sup- posed to have been created for and andis is helping out the great corporations In its centralized centralized- authority an and 1 the same thing has has been been true of the public public public pub pub- lic utilities commission of this state Pei Perhaps haps the remedies to these these- two commissions may grow so that they will give the proper propel service in the future but it is well wen to keep keen a close I watch on both of them 0 n |