APPENDIX EXTENSION OF TENURE OF GOVERNMENT HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE SIXTY-FIFTH CONGRESS THIRD SESSION ON THE EXTENSION OF TIME FOR RELINQUISHMENT BY THE IN THREE VOLUMES VOLUME 2 (Volumes 2 and 3 contain Report of Hearings before the Joint Subcommittee of Printed for use of the Committee on Interstate Commerce WASHINGTON 1919 APPENDIX VOLUMES 2 AND 3 OF EXTENSION OF TENURE OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF RAILROADS Contain the Complete Hearings Before the JOINT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND Ordered Printed by the COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Sixty-fifth Congress, Third Session As an appendix to the hearings on the extension of time for relinquishment 1 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. INVESTIGATION OF THE CONDITIONS RELATING TO INTERSTATE AND FOR- CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1. INITIATION OF PROCEEDINGS. The initiative of the proceedings provided for by Senate joint resolution 60 was taken by President Woodrow Wilson in a message to the Congress of the United States, presented December 7, 1915, in the following words: 2. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. In the meantime may I make this suggestion? The transportation problem is an exceedingly serious and pressing one in this country. There has from time to time of late been reason to fear that our railroads would not much longer be able to cope with it successfully, as at present equipped and coordinated. I suggest that it would be wise to provide for a commission of inquiry to ascertain by a thorough canvass of the whole question whether our laws as at present framed and administered are as serviceable as they might be in the solution of the problem. It is obviously a problem that lies at the very foundation of our efficiency as a people. Such an inquiry ought to draw out every circumstance and opinion worth considering, and we need to know all sides of the matter if we mean to do anything in the field of Federal legislation. "No one, I am sure, would wish to take any backward step. The regulation of the railways of the country by Federal commission has had admirable results and has fully justified the hopes and expectations of those by whom the policy of regulation was originally proposed. The question is not what should we undo. It is whether there is anything else we can do that would supply us with effective means, in the very process of regulation, for bettering the conditions under which the railroads are operated and for making them more useful servants of the country as a whole. It seems to me that it might be the part of wisdom, therefore, before further legislation in this field is attempted, to look at the whole problem of coordination and efficiency in the full light of a fresh assessment of circumstances and opinion as a guide to dealing with the several parts of it." 3. THE RESOLUTION. Senate joint resolution No. 60 was introduced in the Senate and, after amendment by including the investigation of Government ownership, was adopted by both Houses of Congress. It was approved by the President July 20, 1916, and reads as follows: "[Public Resolution-No. 25-64th Congress.] "[S. J. Res. 60.] "JOINT RESOLUTION Creating a joint subcommittee from the membership of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce and the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to investigate the conditions relating to interstate and foreign commerce, and the necessity of further legislation relating thereto, and defining the powers and duties of such subcommittee. "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Interstate Commerce Committee of the Senate and the Committee of the House of Representatives on Interstate |