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Show CARRIER RELIEF ' Mi ILLBE URGED HUGHES TO PRESENT PLAN IN BEHALF OF MILWAUKEE ROAD IN NEW RAILROAD PLAN September First is Date Selected When Hearing of Roads Will Take Place; Benefits Will be to Advantage of the Weak Companies New York An unprecedented plan for railroad increases, involving pooling pool-ing among weak railroads will be urged ur-ged by Charles E. Hughes before the interstate commerce commission in behalf of the receivers of the Chicago, Chi-cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway. Hearings will begin at Chicago September Sep-tember 1. Under the receiver's plan increases in western territory would be pooled and divided among weaker roads in proportion to the extent such roads fall short of earnings, 5 3-4 per cent on property investment. A prosperous prosper-ous road would not receive full benefit bene-fit of an increase in rates, but a - -eak road would obtain much additional revenue. Some railroad men regard the plan as opposed to the principle of private operation and some go further in denunciation de-nunciation and use the words -'soviet theory." Mark W. Potter, former interstate commerce commissioner, one of the St. Paul's reeiveis and originator of the plan, has met these objections by statements that the principles which govern the operation of industrial corporations uo longer hold true on the railroads as their earnings are restricted by the recapture clause of the transportation act. This clause provides that if any railroad earns more than "6 per cent, half of the excess revenue shall be turned back to the government to form a fund on which the interstate commerce commission may draw to loan roads in financial distress. The retaining of Mr. Hughes, announced an-nounced recently, was somewhat of a surprise, as the investment house of Roosevelt & Co., which is opposed to the reorganization plan of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway recently recent-ly made overture tj bim with a view to retaining him in investigation of the failure of the road last March. A conference between the receivers of the St. Paul and executives of other northwestern carriers will be held here shortly in an effort to win support to the rate increase plan. Hale Holden, president of the Burlington, Bur-lington, is already here for the conference. con-ference. He remarked that the Potter plan conflicted with the transportation transporta-tion act, and that the remedy for decreased de-creased passenger earnings was supervision su-pervision of interstate bus traffic with equal rates for steam and motor carriers. car-riers. Western carriers as a class are now preparing a petition to the commerce com-merce commission for a flat increase of 5 per cent on freight rates. |