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Show oo . ' j CONTROL OF THE ; RAILROADS. In his address before congress today, to-day, President Wilson touched on the railroad question, saying he had no solution so-lution of the problem to offer, but was opposed to a return to tho old con-! con-! ditlons 4 er private management without lifications. He stood ready to release the railroads from government govern-ment control whenever a satisfactory j plan of readjustment could be. worked j out by congress. . j The Standard is surprised to learn I that a number of tho most prominent j financiers of tho United States even men identified with what is known as big interests are opposed to the rail- ! roads going back to the conditions which prevailed prior to the war. ! F. H. Rawson, president of the , Union Trust company of Chicago, and 1 David R. Fogan, president of the Na- i tional City Bank of Chicago, take the J ji ' position that disaster would follow an j p unscrambling of the railroad system, i ijj "I do not see how the railroads can I !j i be taken back under private manage- jl i ment -with any prospect of successful fi j ; operation under conditions like those i J) j lnat formerly prevailed," said Mr. Raw- ! ;; son. "Under the former system the control was divided between the rail- 1 road companies and the government, but the responsibilities all rested on ; the companies. The government made ! the rates, but had nothing to do with controlling the costs o operation. The I companies had to operate even though J costs were steadily rising and ratcB I were stationary. The results were i bound to be a wiping out of profits, an ' Increase of debts and a deterioration j of the physical properties, such as I tracks and equipment. ' I "When the government took over the operation of the lines, howevor, it I' promptly raised the rates to a point i never even dreamed of by the companies' compa-nies' officials a.nd thus obtnlned a part i of the money .needed for equipment i and property to operate the roads at war prcssuro capacity. "I do not believe tho stockholders will want to have the roads turned back to them. If they can bo guaranteed guaran-teed a reasonable return on their investment. in-vestment. I believe they will prefer to have the lines remain in the government's gov-ernment's hands." oo |