Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], June 25, 1910, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

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I G.., WeeK,v I
Vol. XVII SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, JUNE 25, 1910 No. 10 jH
The New Railroad Law
a NEW law for the more careful government
of railroads has been passed by Congress
and has the full approval of the President. A
majority of the most able papers in the country
approve of It. Its most pertinent features are:
first, a Court of Commerce Is created; Its chief
province will be to consider (at once) appeals
I from the orders of the Inter-State Commerce Com-
mission. Next the long and short haul of the old
? law is amended so that In some cases, with the
I consent of the Commission, a heavier tanit may
I be put upon a short than a long haul, but the
fixing of a rate to destroy water competition Is
I prohibited.
Railroads are required, on the written appli
cation of a shipper to furnish written statements
of rates from one place to another.
The Commission Is empowered to pass upon
the fairness of rates or classifications and to pre
scribe maximum rates.
Orders of the Commission unless set aside
by a competent court are to stand for two years
and suspicious new rates may be suspended for
I ten months, pending investigation. Authority is
given the Commission to establish through and
maximum rates whenever the roads neglect to
do so.
Shippers have the right to designate what
connecting roads their freight may be assigned to
when 4eaving the road first shipped over.
Telegraphs and telephones are placed under
f the jurisdiction of the Commerce Commission.
u Very many wise men believe that the new law
jjf will work for good to the public and will impose
no unjust hardships upon the railroads. At first
ithe roads were almost in insurrection against the
proposed law, but a conference of some of the
leading managers with the President in a mea
sure reconciled them, so that they promised to
give the new law a fair trial. It has held the
attention of some of the best minds in Congress
for weeks, and is, we presume, the best result
that could be reached, considering the plan
marked out for Improvement. It is te first dis
tinctive administration measure that has passed
Congress during Mr. Taft's incumbency of the
high office. We take it that when tried It will
be upheld by the courts, for the President is too
profound a lawyer to uige on unconstitutional
law.
And still, while It may seem presumptious, we
have our misgivings over the success of the meas
. ure. It adds to the complex machinery of the law
1 which is to guide railroad companies. It adds
!Y another court to deal exclusively with railroad
Jf legislation, when In truth railroads are but com-
H J mon carriers, and it seems to us that a few di
rect and positive laws, with proper penalties at
tached for violating those laws, ought to settle
their status, and then under those laws the sev
eral companies ought to manage their own busi
ness. Of course railroads are the most powerful
factors that the government has to deal with,
except, perhaps, the great moneyed magnates, that
manipulate the finances of the nation and at their
option directly and indirectly control the coun
try's business. And our belief is that for Its own
P safety the government should establish a flnan-
fe cial system which w"ould take from that moneyed
power, the power to make the millions of this
V country vwho create its wealth their servitors,
L J to make aid unmake prlco3; to gamble until
i
national panics are precipitated; 'that Congress
should pick up and again assert Its right "to
coin money and establish the value thereof, and
in a crisis that the government should stretch
out Its potential arm and prevent disaster.
Returning to the railroads they have their
own troubles, and should not be interfered with
except when they, by discriminations, are work
ing hardships upon the people of different sec
tions. Their payroll is steadily increasing, In two
years they claim they have paid out $260,000,000
more than In the previous two years and this is
mostly for labor; to keep their roads in safe con
dition they have had to expend vast sums which
in two years past has added $100,000,000 to their
interest account; material is rapidly increasing
In cost; and their roads and rolling stock are
wearing out. Then the pension roll of some of
them is a heavy draft upon them. Of course all
are heavily in debt and the annual Interest ac
count is a tremendous item. We do not believe
that the interference with them by the govern
ment has yet been pursued on right lines.
A Leaf Of History
ANEW book has been written of "The Fall
of the French Empire and the Life of Eu
genie." A long review of the book Is pub
lished in the New York papers. And the book
may be of interest to this younger generation, but
the chief interest attached to it, it seems to us,
is that to read it will make more vivid the trag
edy which seems to have been dictated by Fate
itnelf the rise and fall of the Bonapartes and
the lessen which the sombre history should teach
the world.
The poor of Europe had been oppressed for
twelve hundred years. Millions had died in bat
tle and through the hardships which every form
of tyranny had inflicted upon them, until the at
mosphere was as tainted by those tyranies as
was ever the air over a swamp tainted by malaria.
Then the first Napoleon was called. Just a
little before his birth Corsica was attached to
France, so that he was born a French subject.
It was given him twenty years in which to cumb
er the ground with dead men, and to saturate
the homes with tears. It was the sacrifice de
manded, in order that the air might be cleared
and that men's visions might be broadened.
Then he was put aside; his star that had
blazed with a splendor baleful and terrible went
into sudden eclipse.
Then the old rule was restored, but most of
the ancient tyrannies were dead. The son of
the Corsicans, born of ambition and pride, died
while yet a youth.
Then the body of the dead Emperor was re
turned to France, and France, forgetting the sor
rows that he in life had brought her, gathered
around his ashes and with passionate grief
thought only of the splendors he had wrought,
and compared his rule with the stupid rule they
were plodding under, until the marvelous tomb
which they had built for the "great emperor,"
became a shrine. For a quarter of a century
they waited, dissatisfied, and then one bearing
the old magic name, appeared and on the pre
tense of giving back to the people their liberties,
assumed the leadership, and by carefully planned
maneuvers became emperor. Knowing the peo
ple and their moods, he at once began work which
appealed to their pride and pleasure. He was a
patron of their industries and arts. On the pre-
tense of beautifying their beloved Paris, he iH
straightened the streets so that cannon could be 1
trained through their whole length; built new and ' !H
beautiful structuies; he took for a wife one of the
most beautiful of women; he brought on a war jf
with Austria and wen; In a single decade France "
emerged from under the clouds and became again H
one of the controlling powers of the world; her
old pride was restored and when she made an
alliance with Great Britain and Turkey and M
helped humble Russia in a second war, the meas- M
ure of his fame seemed full. The first great re- H
vorse he experienced was when ho joined with X
Austria to back an Austrian prince in his at- H
tempt to usurp the throne of Mexico and restore H
in the new world, the tyrannies that the people H
had cast off. The usurping Emperor was over- H
borne, captured and shot; the army of France in H
that land was compelled to return, baffled and H
disgraced to their own country. In the meantime H
corruption was permeating all the departments of H
the Government, the discipline of the army was H
growing lax; the arms and ammunition supplied
the soldiers were inferior; this usurping Emperor H
was blinded, he could not see the faults which H
were creeping into the state; he could not see H
the preparations for war which the power beyond H
the Rhine was making, and in a mad hour, with- '
out any sufficient cause, declared war against M
that power and set his armies on the march to M
attack it. Worse, still, he insisted upon com- M
manding those armies. The story tnen was M
quickly told. In a few months his power was M
crushed and his armies beaten; he was given an M
asylum in a foreign land. France was humbled
into the dust and a mighty indemnity levied '
against her. A little later he died under an M
anaesthetic given that a slight operation might be H
performed; a little later still, the son, bright and M
full of promise, was ambuscaded and killed by H
a savage foe, and all that was eft of the second H
empire was a motherless, widowed empress, shorn . H
of all power, and another emperor's widow shorn ' M
of her reason. In the meantime France began M
again to sing the Marseillaise; her people picked fl
up the raveled ends of her shattered power, but M
this time they wove them into a republic. It M
was through all those sufferings that the people f M
learned the secret of self-government. It was M
by such means that fate taught them the fear- M
ful lesson of how to be free.
The Guildhall Speech And The Critics 'H
IN his Guildhall address Col. Roosevelt told H
his audience that England should enforce her fl
laws in Egypt or get out. He referred particu- M
larly to the murder of Boutros Pasha (the Egyp- M
tion Prime Minister), said the Nationalist party, M
in their attitude in connection with the murder '
makes clear that they are neither desirous nor M
capable of guaranteeing even primary justice," M
the failure to supply which makes self-government M
not merely a failure, but a noxious farce, and add- M
od: "When a people treat assassination as the M
corner-stone of government they foufeit all right H
to be treated as worthy of self-government. Some H
nation" must govern Egypt. I hope and believe H
that you will decide that it is your duty to be ..IH
4 that nation." ,H
Of course the speech made a great sensation. H
Some papers endorsed it, some condemned It, ,H
some vehemently attacked it. TH
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