The Railroad Question
Performed by William Jennings Bryan
Recorded July 21, 1908
The right of Congress to exercise
complete control over interstate commerce, and the
right of each state to exercise just as complete control
over commerce within its borders, can no longer be
questioned. But it is necessary that there shall be
an enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce
Commission to enable it to compel railroads to perform
their duties as common carriers and to prevent discrimination
and extortion. The first step in the direction of
supervision and rate legislation is to be found in
the valuation of the railroad, and we believe that
the Interstate Commerce Commission should be authorized
to make such valuation, taking into consideration
not only the physical value of the property but the
original cost of production and all other elements
which enter into a fair and just evaluation. We believe
that railroads should be prohibited from engaging
in business which brings them into competition with
their shippers, that the older issue of stocks and
bonds should be prevented, and that such reductions
should be made as conditions justify, care being taken
to avoid reduction that would compel a reduction of
wages, prevent adequate service, or do injustice to
legitimate investment. The Interstate Commerce Commission
should have the power to take the initiative in the
determination of rate and all traffic agreements should
be subject to the approval of the commission. Telegraph
lines and telephone lines, so far as they are engaged
in interstate commerce, should be also under the jurisdiction
of the Interstate Commerce Commission. In other words,
these quasi-public corporations must recognize the
obligations which they owe to the public and the government
acting to its reported agents should be in a position
to require obedience to law, and submission to necessary
regulations. Railroad managers sometimes assume that
the general public is bent on injustice, but this
is a mistake. There is a sense of justice among the
masses and this sense of justice can always be appealed
to. The Democratic party is not hostile to railroads,
but it is hostile to the mismanagement of railroads
and to the extortion that is sometimes practiced by
railroads. It insists upon fair play and nothing more.
It insists that the patron as well as the stockholder
must be considered, and it believes that friendly
relations between the railroads and the public can
only be maintained by an understanding of the situation
and by the recognition, by all corporations, of the
supremacy of the government.