Show SENATOR SUTHERLAND ON THE RAILROAD RATE Sutherland before the vote is taken upon this amendment I desire express my disappointment and dissatisfaction at the present We are confronted in the country today with this The railroad companies are making traffic agreements every they are making agreements with reference to their There is absolutely no question about in violation of law or they are making these In one for the arrangement is made in There is a gentleman in Chicago who is the agent of a large number of western for we will say the Oregon Short Line desires to raise a rate or change a it writes a letter to this individual and says to propose to increase the or decrease as the case may He sends out a letter to the oilier who are in that and those companies of the proposition made by the Oregon Line Railroad company and asks them what they desire to do about Each of the railroad companies answers him and tells him what they desire to If they all agree to tire change of the he files their schedules the Interstate Commerce commission and the rate goes into Other railroad companies make their agreements in other but in one way or another all the railroad companies of the country agree upon these changes of The railroad business of this country can not be done in any other The moment we framed the commerce act it became practical impossibility for the railroad companies of the country to compete in any real so far as rates were They may compete as to their they may compete as to their running but the railroad companies of the country do not any longer compete with one another on seems to me that it is a situation which calls for a rem To my mind it is infinitely better that we should permit the railroad companies to make their agreements in the open and let them be filed with some responsible official so that the shippers and public may understand what is going on and so that they may be subject to the supervision and control of an official than it is to have them made under the cloak of The Republican party at its last convention declared in favor of this To my if congress fails to put it into this bill it is a distinct repudiation of that I think platforms are made to mean I think this plank in the Republican platform was meant to mean and I think it is the plain duty of a Republican Republican a Republican and a Republican house of representatives to carry that plank into I therefore take the of expressing my disappointment and dissatisfaction with the situation which we are-now Congressional |