Abstract

The Week

The article focuses on several issues related to transportation in the United States. It may not be generally known that there is in existence a Senatorial Transportation Committee, appointed in the last session of Congress, whose duty it is to report at some time upon the transportation question for the benefit of Congress and the public. Where this Committee is or what it is doing one do not know, though it is now stated that it proposes to have a conference with the farmers to find out what their grievances are. This would be a highly sensible thing for the Committee to do, considering the suspicions, which in certain quarters are entertained about their labors, and considering also the present proportions of the farmers' movement. The new Illinois railroad law seems to be an admitted failure. Nobody pretends to know what its remote effects may be, but at present it threatens to divert trade from Chicago, Illinois. The railroads have found a way of avoiding its operation with regard to through freight; by making the tariff on the merchandise while it is within the borders of Illinois conform to the law, and charging nothing for carrying it the rest of the distance.