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Rh would be invested in capital goods, which reacts unfavorably upon all classes of people.

The restrictions with which the operation of our railways has been tied up are of deleterious consequences. The acme of these is to be found in the Transportation Act of 1920, which while possessing some good features has a very bad one in the creation of the U. S. Labor Board, giving governmental authority over conditions of employment of labor for the operation of the railways and the rates of wages that shall be paid. Railway labor is therefore put into a class by itself by congressional action.

The extent and nature of the restrictions that have been imposed on the railways were graphically portrayed by Charles Frederick Carter in a recent address wherein he charged that they cost the people of America at least a billion dollars a year; how much in fact “Omniscience alone knows.” He suggested that “if Senator La Follette and his followers were sincere in their desire to reduce rates they could accomplish that result by the simple expedient of repealing the foolish laws that hamstring railroad management.” The following paragraphs are in Mr. Carter’s own words:

At the last short session 134 bills to Regulate the Railroads Some More were introduced in Congress. And it was alleged recently that 400 bills to Regulate the Railroads Some More had been written ready for introduction as soon as Congress meets. If you doubt the possibility of finding 400 things which can be done to the railroads that have not already been done, I beg to assure you that you have underestimated the infinite resources of demagogy.

But what is there about railroads that needs so much regulation? Well, there are ashpans, for instance. You couldn’t expect locomotive builders to know how to make an ashpan, so Congress kindly helped them out. And cylinder cocks! Locomotives are required by law to have cylinder cocks. Up to the hour of going to press it has never occurred to a steam engine builder to design a cylinder without cocks, but Congress took no chances.