The New York Times/1916/11/22/Deplores Punitive Laws
DEPLORES PUNITIVE LAWS.
Railroad Spokesman Urges Encouragement of Transportation Industry
Special to The New York TimesWASHINGTON, Nov. 21.—At a long conference today the railroad executives now in Washington arranged the order in which the testimony of the companies should be presented to the Joint Committee on Interstate Commerce, which yesterday began an investigation of the transportation situation. The committee decided that the representatives of the railroads should appear first.
It was decided by the railroad executives that the presentation of their side should be begun by A. P. Thom, counsel to the Railway Executives’ Advisory Committee. He will address the Newlands Committee on Thursday Morning.
Frank Trumbull, Chairman of the Railway Executives’ Advisory Committee, and other executives returned home tonight to await their turn to appear before the committee. Prior to his departure Mr. Trumbull, in answer to a request to define the position of the railroads to the inquiry, said:
“The railways naturally desired to co-operate in this inquiry in whatever way the Joint Congressional Committee considers most helpful. We regard the inquiry as one in which all those whose study or experience may throw light on the problems involved should participate, to the end that a plan may finally be adopted which will, in the President’s phrase, make the railroads ‘more useful servants to the public as a whole.’
“The representatives of the railroads have no completed plan or program to submit at this time and do not wish to appear as the advocates or opponents of any special plan. It is natural, however, that men who have been in daily contact with State and Federal regulation in the operation of the roads should have formed some conclusions as to particulars in which existing methods of regulation are unduly burdensome to the commerce of the country. In doing this the railroads do not oppose public regulation. That is not now a question for debate. But if, as we feel, some features of the existing system are defective, wasteful, and uneconomic, it is a matter of public duty to call attention to this fact.
“Many of the existing laws relating to railway regulation, especially State laws, are primarily punitive and restrictive. They were enacted to punish the railroads for actual or alleged past wrongdoing. The difference in spirit and purpose between our railway laws and, for example, those governing our banking system, which are designed to serve the public by encouraging and facilitating banking operations, is obvious. The railways hold that it is to the public interest as well as to their interest that the system of regulation be framed with the purpose of encouraging railway development and efficient service along legitimate lines.
“By far the greater part of the railway business of the country consists of the transportation of interstate commerce, and the regulation of this is properly a Federal and not a State function.”