Buffalo (N. Y.) Express.-In deciding to ask Congress to enlarge the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the governors of the Northwestern States have taken at least one step which promises some practical results. The Commission needs all the support it can get. As the establishment of close traffic arrangement in one form or another can not be prevented, the enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission appears to offer the only check that can be found on exorbitant freight rates.

What the outcome of the Commission's efforts will be remains to be seen. If this body is to be continued, it should have enlarged powers, including supervision of rates in a large degree if not completely. The Commission and its friends have no easy task before them, yet, undoubtedly, it is the wish of the country that something be done to clear up this vexing question.

Brooklyn (N. Y.) Eagle.-Equality of rates is the great demand of the shipper. He would be reasonably assured of this were the scope of the Interstate Commerce Commission broadened as it should be. If the Commission is to do nothing better than provide for the collection and compilation of statistics it might as well be abolished and its duties, as at present defined, transferred to an ordinary bureau. If it is to remain in existence it should be endowed with the authority to make its decisions worth the paper they are written on.

MINNESOTA.

St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer-Press.-The vital point is to find a remedy for the evils of combination, whatever form it may assume. The President's view that the remedy is to be found in a larger Government control, through the Interstate Commerce Commission, is that of the Commission itself, and of the best opinion of the country.

Objection is made that there is no use trying to get a measure of that kind through Congress; that all the combined influence of the railroad corporations in this country would be employed to defeat it, as they have heretofore managed to defeat all amendments to the interstate commerce act designed to enlarge and effectuate the powers of the Commission. But if they have easily succeeded in defeating such attempted legislation heretofore, it is because it was backed by no active or urgent popular demand.

So long as the railroads were cutting each other's throats. in relentless wars of competition the people were comparatively indifferent to any Government control. But now, after the survivors of the slaughter and the reorganized successors of a multitude of bankrupt railroads have found a way to avoid ruinous rate wars in consolidation or combination, the American people will surely insist upon such adequate protection from any abuse of their powers of taxing commerce and industry as can only be found in an effective Government control. Under existing conditions it is entirely safe to assume that the popular demand for such legislation will become so urgent and imperative that no Congress would dare to disobey it, and that the united influence of the railroad corporations, with all their thousands of millions of capital behind them, will be impotent to resist the mandate of the public will.

Minneapolis (Minn.) Tribune.-The measure introduced by Congressman Corliss, of Michigan, appears to be the best susbtitute for the present interstate-commerce law which has appeared.

Faribault (Minn.) Republican.-The present helpless state of the Interstate Commerce Commission is indicative of what will be the condition of the public if the railroads are not restricted from effecting unlimited combinations for controlling business in their interests. The disclosures of discriminations and rebates to the larger shippers in direct violation of the law made in the late investigation by the Commission in Chicago show that the law has been but a cobweb before the mercenary forces whose interest it is to disregard it. Representative Corliss, of Michigan, has introduced a bill making amendments to the bill for the purpose of strengthening the hands of the Commissioners, but in view of the ill success of past legislation the outlook is not encouraging.

Duluth (Minn.) Tribune. The bill recently introduced in the Senate to increase the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission is a step in the right direction. It is in line with the general demand that the Commission should either be abolished or made effective for good by giving it the power to enforce its decrees subject, always, to appeal to higher tribunals.

INDIANA.

Muncie (Ind.) Times.-The Interstate Commerce Commission should have more authority. At present the Commission can do little else than point out where evils exist and suggest remedies.

Indianapolis Sentinel. The Interstate Commerce Commission has made a strong showing of the need for greater power, but there is little probability of Congress giving it. The railroads and trusts do not want the law made effective, and this is a Republican Congress.

The country should not lose sight of the desired amendments to the interstate-commerce law. As the Commission urges, it has no power to accomplish the ends for which it was created.

Indianapolis Sentinel. The Commission has asked for increased powers repeatedly, but the railroad and trust lobby has always been able to defeat the measures. Of course it is possible that the roads might get control of the Commission, if it were given adequate powers, but that is no reason for making it a mere figurehead. It should be given power to regulate commerce or it should be abolished. The bill introduced by Mr. Corliss, of Michigan, ought to be passed.

Indianapolis News. If more power is not granted to the Interstate Commerce Commission by the present Congress, the people in the coming elections will want to know why.

It is useless to talk of the wisdom of the let-alone policy when the railroads themselves are doing everything in their power to destroy those conditions under which alone the let-alone policy can be defended. The theory on which free and popular governments keep their hands off private quasi-public enterprises is that the force of competition is sufficient to protect the people. When, therefore, these enterprises interfere with the free action of that great force, they must expect another one put in motion. No great thing is asked. All that the people want is that existing legal agencies be made effective. It is through them, and them alone, that competition can be preserved.

To doubt that a remedy can be found for the evils from which the country is now suffering, or with which it is threatened, is to doubt the capacity of the people for self-government.

No law should pass Congress that does not permit the decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission to be binding at the moment of their promulgation, and that does not throw the burden of their reversal on the railroads.

We do not believe our Senators and Representatives realize the depth of public feeling on this subject. For, if they did, they would take up the question and consider it seriously, with an honest purpose to arrive at the solution that would be best for all.

Indianapolis Sentinel. It is hardly necessary to state that the people who want the evil stopped are not in favor of the Elkins bill and are in favor of the Nelson-Corliss bill, which is a good measure. If the power of trusts is to be curbed this law is absolutely necessary, and all who are interested in securing fair and equal rates should write their Senators and Representatives in support of it.

Indianapolis Sentinel (Dem.).—The Democratic party is to be congratulated on its square stand for giving the Interstate Commerce Commission power to enforce its rulings. All the trusts have profited by this abuse, and many of them owe their very existence to it. It was railway favors more than anything else that built up the Standard Oil monopoly, the beef trust, and other of the most odious of the combines.

ILLINOIS.

Chicago (Ill.) Journal.-The Interstate Commerce Commission is popularly supposed to be a national board that in a great measure controls the railroads of the country and protects the people from unjust oppression on the part of the roads. This undoubtedly was the original object of the law, which was passed by Congress in 1887, but year after year since then the lawyers of the railroads have torn wider and wider holes in it through which they have not only driven the traditional "coach and six," but great railway trains as well, with the result that nobody now precisely knows what the Interstate Commerce Commission is, or its powers and duties. Congress seems to be powerless, or else unwilling, to patch up the law thus rent in fragments. Every session of the Commission simply adds to the demonstration of its impotence. Congress should mend it or end it.

Chicago Chronicle.-It is enough to know that the Commission is practically powerless, and that the law under which it acts is not much better than a dead letter. The real question is whether the law ought to be changed so that it will have some effect to protect the public against the abuses of corporate power against which it purports to be aimed. If not the law may about as well be wiped clean off the statute books and the Commission abolished as a useless and expensive excrescence upon our governmental establishment. There can not be much doubt that public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of such action as will make the law of some effect.

The wild and eccentric competition between railroads, by which rates for freight and passengers are indiscriminately cut to meet the rates of some rival bankrupt or reckless line, is the worst evil of railroad commerce. It demoralizes all business of the country which is regulated by the prices for transportation. Under intelligent supervision by proper authority pooling contracts would be equitable to every interest, and would give to railroad commerce a stability of rates with

other such other fair regulations as would constitute a substantial reform in the business methods of the country.

Chicago Post.-One thing is certain, unregulated monopoly the people will not endure. The corollary of mergers, consolidation, and pooling is systematic and rigid control by a court, commission, or any other agency representing the interests of the people. Transportation will not be allowed to regulate itself. The advocates of the let-alone policy are playing into the hands of those who favor Government ownership. The law should permit consolidation and pooling, but it should also guarantee equal and fair rates. This is the position of the Presi

dent and the Commission.

Chicago Post. The people of the United States will not tolerate favoritism, discrimination, and abuse of monopolistic power by the railroad corporations. In the words of Chairman Knapp, of the Interstate Commerce Commission, "No service which the Government undertakes can be more useful, and no duty which rests upon it more imperative than to secure for the public always and everywhere equal treatment by every railway carrier." The "let-well-enough-alone" cry is absurd, for the situation is not satisfactory to the majority of shippers. Wherever there is monopoly there must be supervision and regulation in the public interest. The only possible alternative to regulation is Government ownership. Enlightened self-interest" is a broken reed to lean on where competition fails or finds itself barred by the nature of the industry.

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Mr. Roosevelt's policy is fair and reasonable. He offers to aid the railroads in obtaining better and more modern legislation, but present abuses he insists on suppressing. It is idle to threaten him with withdrawal of support. The railroads will not stand together in the contest outlined, and they could not win if they did stand together. The people would be on Mr. Roosevelt's side, and they are more powerful than the railroads. The truth is mighty, especially the truth about the evils of discrimination and favoritism in rate making. The railroads will not carry out the threats they are alleged to have made.

The railroad corporations are not by any means satisfied with the status quo and they have a programme of their own to promote. While they have crippled the Commission, the necessity of resorting to secret rate cutting, rebates and other violations of the law is painful to some of them. Other things equal, they would rather obey the law and adhere to published rates. Unfair competition drives them into practices they can not wish to continue indefinitely. What they want is reasonable freedom of contract and pooling, of association for the regulation and equitable distribution of traffic.

Chicago Inter-Ocean.-The agitation against railway consolidation and the demand for equity in railway rates do not arise from a desire to injure anyone. They arise from the perception that transportation has become such a commercial and industrial necessity to the people that equality in charges is almost as vital as equality before the laws.

To many citizens the only safe alternative in the railway problem seems to be Government control of the rate-making power. For many reasons the vast majority of Americans do not desire Government ownership. Yet equality in railway rates they must have, and this equality the railway managers have practically confessed their inability to attain. All their traffic agreements, pools, etc., in the last analysis are no bar to discrimination.

Hence Mr. Cassatt is wise if he supports the plan of effective Government supervision over the rate-making power. Those who oppose such supervision but strengthen the hands of the confiscators.

Chicago News.-How serious is the need of a revision of the law is shown in the annual report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, which does not mince words in denouncing the present evasions of the measure as "surprising and offensive to all right-minded persons." The Commission declare that the criminal provisions of the law need reenforcement. Unless Congress is disposed wholly to discredit the Commission's report, it can hardly ignore these recommendations, unless it proposes to repudiate the principle of Government supervision of railways.

Chicago Drovers' Journal.-As the matter now stands, the Commission can do nothing except to investigate and make a report. The railroads are said to violate agreements and rules with impunity, because they know that it is highly improbable that a fine will have to be paid.

Chicago Standard.-The difficulty with the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission is that it has no power to enforce its mandates. It is to be hoped that Congress will soon come to the relief of the Commission and, disregarding the formidable opposition by the railroad lobby that is certain to be organized, will amend the law in such a way as to give the Commission power to fix at least maximum rates, and to enforce its decisions by direct judicial process under proper limitations.

Chicago (Ill.) Railway Age.-Railway legislation is a fact, and, in the absence of Government ownership, will continue to be a fact. The principal thing just now is to relieve the present intolerable situation, and the Elkins bill as presented seems to fairly promise to do this.

Springfield (Ill.) News. The Interstate Commerce Commission has shown many abuses which need correction, but which it is powerless to correct. Congress will be supported by public sentiment in any extension of power given the Commission.

Pekin (Ill.) Times.-The interstate-commerce law should be amended or repealed. As a joke it has been carried too far.

Springfield (Ill.) Journal. The Cullom bill has now been replaced by a shorter and simpler one, which will accomplish all that is really necessary and which stands a much better chance of being enacted into law. These simple amendments will be effective if adopted, because they will close up the loopholes through which the railroads evade compliance with the orders of the Commission. If they are compelled to observe the orders of that body until the courts reverse them, they will not violate the law with impunity as they have done for past, and there will be an immediate change in their methods.

years Examiner, Mount Sterling, Ill.-It is enough to know that the Commission is in fact practically powerless and the law under which it acts is not much better than a dead letter. There can not be much doubt that public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of such action as will make the law of some effect.

Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph.-A representative of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Illinois Manufacturers' Association has made some important statements before the House Interstate Committee with reference to rate discrimination by the railroads. He told the committee that the roads made a cheaper rate on wheat from Chicago