The National Railroad Question of today

For an understanding of the Railroad Question of to-day it is necessary to review the facts which led up to Federal Control of the Railroads. As one who had a hand in the development of several ·trunk line railroads with Ocean Terminals and has been otherwise connected with the Railroad subject in many ways, the important facts as I see them are: For ten years before the war the clashing of State and Federal laws, the effect of the Laws under which the Interstate Commerce Committee worked or their interpretation of such laws gave indication that the railroads of the country, while in a high state of efficiency, were losing their attractiveness to investors, and many were losing their financial strength, so that the war found most of the railroads with small surplus in hand for meeting an emergency.