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Show RAILWAY CONTROL 10 EM ARCH 1 PRESIDENT FIXES DATE FOR RETURN OF RAILROADS AND EXPRESS TO OWNERS. Estimated That in Two Year6 of Possession Pos-session of the Railroads of the Country, the Government Has Lost $646,000,000. Washington. On December 24 a proclamation was issued by President Wilson, returning the railroads and express companies to private control March 1. Failure of congress to enact remedial reme-dial legislation was given as the reason rea-son for extending by two months the time originally announced for relinquishing relin-quishing government control of the railroad properties. Iu his message to congress last May. President Wilson said the roads would be turned back at the end of the calendar year. "No agreement having yet been reached by congress," Secretary Tumulty Tu-multy said in announcing the proclamation, procla-mation, "it became necessary in the public interest to allow a reasonable time to elapse between the issuing of the proclamation and the date of its actually taking effect. ' The president is advised that the railroad and express ex-press companies are not organized to make it possible for them to receive and manage their properties if actually turned over to them on December 31." The Escb-Cununins bill, designed to meet conditions incident to the return of the roads, now is in conference, with, the prospect that an agreement on differences between the house and senate will be threshed out before March 1. Inasmuch as the staffs of the various va-rious systems have been retained virtually vir-tually intact by the railroad administration, admin-istration, the return of the railroads to private control will involve legal and financial rather than operating questions. Those departments of the railroad administration will remain iu extst- ama will, hii'roii o(t nprflfinnpl for months after the operating officers have left the government service. Swager Sherley, former chairman of the house appropriations committee and now director of finance for the railroad administration, probably will be the man chosen to wind up the government's business in railroading. Even bigger problems confront the express companies. Consolidated into one system under government operation opera-tion the four'original corporations are reported to have asked tbe department of justice if there would be any violation vio-lation of the Sherman antitrust law in their remaining a unit. In two years of physical possession of the railroads the government has encountered a deficit of approximately ?04(5,0O0,OOO, according to estimates submitted by Mr. Sherley to Senator Cummins. When the roads were taken over January 1, 191S, congress guaranteed guar-anteed them a rental of $000,000,000 annually, based on the average income of a three-year test period. Operating revenues in 1918 fell $236,000,000 below be-low the standard return and this year will be about $250,000,000 under that imount. The remainder of the deficit defi-cit has been incurred in expenses of administration, inland waterways, etc. Two appropriations have been made by congress, one of $500,000,000 and the other of $750,000,000, much of which lias been used as a revolving fund by the railroad corporation and for the purchase of new equipment. These amounts will he repaid to the u-overnment. |