A Railroad the Valley Needed—and Another Year of Waiting

The Interstate Commerce Commission, in a telegram last Sunday to Edward S. Russell, president of the Wenatchee Southern railroad, said that another hearing had been ordered on the application of the proposed road for a certificate of necessity and convenience.

In the face of all the evidence already presented to the commission, no one except the commission itself seems to understand the necessity for another hearing. It is believed that another hearing will delay the building of the road at least another year. Down in this valley the delay will not be serious, although at the present rate of growth it will not be long before the road will be a necessity here. But up in the Wenatchee valley, where the growers have literally lost millions because of lack of sufficient transportation facilities, the postponement amounts to a tragedy. The Wenatchee Daily World, in the editorial printed below, voices the sentiment of everyone interested in the Wenatchee Southern, from Pasco and Kennewick to Wenatchee. The editorial follows:

“The greatest shock the people of Central Washington have had for a long time will land with the announcement in the Daily World today that the Interstate Commerce Commission would call for a rehearing in the Wenatchee Southern matter. With the evidence at hand that millions during the past several years had been lost on account of inadequate transportation, that millions had been lost by freezing, that millions had been lost by overheating, that the transportation problem hits deep into the pocketbook of every man, woman and child in this section of the state, and with the action of the granges, the commercial bodies of this part of the state, with the recommendation of the governor of the state, with the recommendation of the board of public utilities, with the urgent request of Senators Jones and Poindexter, and the unanimous request of 100,000 people in Central Washington—the Interstate Commerce Commission, assuming that the people of this country don’t know what they are talking about, says ‘We’ll have to have another hearing on this question.’

“The Interstate Commerce Commission had not been asked to build this line, you understand. All that was wanted was a certificate of necessity and convenience to let the Wenatchee Southern build its own line. This country must have an outlet to take care of its increasing business.

“It has been paying for service—paying the highest kind of rates presumably for the best service on earth—paying for the perishable rate for fruit and receiving service as if it were non-perishable.

“The question arises as to whether the people of this country have any rights at all that the Interstate Commerce Commission is bound to respect. This proposition has been delayed and delayed and delayed. Now the proposal of the Interstate Commerce Commission is to delay it again.

“When the story goes out in today’s Daily World telling of the action of the Commission, we know where there are at least 100,000 outraged people who would like to get at something down at the national capital and proceed to turn it upside down and wrong side out, and hit it in the face, and kick it in the pants, and pulverize it into powder, and then proceed to get at this thing which stands in the way of the homes of these people.

“The call for a rehearing is unnecessary delay. It is inexcusable. You know it. The members of the Interstate Commerce Commission know it. For they have the evidence. The inference naturally comes that there is too much influence of some kind or other down at Washington.

“In the face of this demand for rehearing, the question naturally arises: ‘Why is an Interstate Commerce Commission anyway?’

“Both Senators Jones and Poindexter declared that if this certificate was not granted, they would see in such a decision sufficient reason to take away this power from the Commission. We know we are voicing the sentiments of this people when we say it is time to act. Let it be made a state and national issue! Why should the interest of a people be frittered along by a board of men whom we pay big salaries to anyway?

“The people of this country don’t need to tolerate this kind of business. And they won’t tolerate it. They will kick out the whole Interstate Commerce Commission first. They will do it, if it is necessary to unite the people of this state, and go to congress and make a national issue of it.”