Whatever  other  cause  may  be  assigned,  it  is  probable
that,  in  large  measure,  the  Administration's  failure  in  rail
roading  must  be  laid  at  the  door  of  this  class  spirit  which
puts  the  selfishness  of  its  group  above  the  public  good  and
above  the  government  itself.  But  did  the  Administration
fail?

Before  government  operation  was  adopted,  advocates
of  the  policy  held  that  under  it  the  railways  would  be  oper
ated  much  more  economically  than  when  operated  pri-
ately.  Do  the  facts  bear  out  or  support  this  theory?

Government  operation  reduced  the  quantity  of  freight
handled  per  car  daily  and  failed  to  increase  the  amount  of
freight  per  train  in  any  degree  approaching  the  proportion
of  increase  under  private  operation — a  fact  which  accounts,
in  large  measure,  for  the  increase  in  expenses.  In  fact,  there
was  practically  no  increase  in  the  freight  moved;  yet  there

8  Times-Union,  Rochester,  N.  Y.
Plumb  was  the  general  counsel  of  the  railroad  brotherhoods.  On  Au
gust  2,  the  president  of  the  four  brotherhoods  and  the  head  of  the  Feder
ation  employes'  department  stated  that  their  unions  "were  in  no  mood  to
brook  the  return  of  the  railway  lines  to  their  former  control";  and  that
economic  disaster  would  follow  unless  the  Plumb  Plan  was  adopted.  And  on
August  3  the  president  of  the  brotherhood  of  locomotive  engineers  said
the  Plan  would  be  made  an  issue  in  the  next  congressional  campaign.
