Joseph P. Tumulty to Woodrow Wilson

In the matter of handling the railroad question which is growing more acute from day to day, the experience of Great Britain ought to be kept in mind. In Great Britain the management of the railroad corporations during the war has been left in the hands of present expert officials.

First: Over there the control body is an Executive Committee of General Managers with the president of the Board of Trade, a member of the Cabinet, as chairman.

Second: Its duties are to unify and control the business with reference to the paramount war needs of the Nation. The British Government guarantees the railroads an income equal to that enjoyed in 1913, which year was accepted as standard because it was admittedly a year of normal prosperity for railroads. If the revenue of the railroads falls below the amount earned in that year, the Government loses. If it is over that amount necessary properly to run the railroads and to provide against their deterioration, the Government gains the difference. The main thing with reference to the British system is that in controlling the railroads, the Government guarantees that its control will not amount to a practical confiscation of a reasonable income. Provision is also made for the adequate maintenance of railroad equipment.

In handling the wage problem, the Goverment assumed half the burden and the railroads half; subsequent bonuses in the way of increases in wages have been shouldered entirely by the Government. There is no Government ownership in operation in Great Britain more than in the United States; but there is in practice a plan whereby the Government exerts itself to insure that the railroads shall not deteriorate as a result of Government control and that their income shall at least be equal to the returns in a normal year of prosperity.

I have been very careful to watch the trend of editorial comment throughout the country and the feeling seems to be that control of this kind would be accepted more readily than control of a more radical kind. Of course the radical thought of the country believes that out and out Government ownership is inevitable.