THE PLUMB PLAN.

Mr. Plumb's exposition in Phillips Brooks House yesterday of his railroad plan met with deserved approval. We congratulate Mr. Plumb upon the success of an excellent stump speech. Aside from a few well-worn jibes at "Wall Street journals" and "Capitalists," his explanation was moderate and in very good taste. But Mr. Plumb's project, stripped of his personality, remains as impracticable as ever.

The main features of the plan, government ownership, management by employees, and government payment of deficit, are all well known, and all three are pernicious. The first of these, government ownership, is a very dangerous principle in a democracy like the United States. Sooner or later the railroads would become the pawns of the political parties, both working for their control. The spoils system on a new and greater scale would be rejuvenated. Moreover, under this plan, the employees of the railroads would have effective control over the hours they work and over the pay they would receive for that work. And the government would pay the bill. One can be reasonably sure that the Brotherhoods would be generous to themselves in fixing the wages of their own members. In other words, what the men spend on themselves by their own vote, at their own good pleasure, the public would pay in taxes.

But that is not all. The railroads would be bought for their "actual value," whatever that may mean. Labor, according to Mr. Plumb, would not accept the present capitalization of the roads as a true statement of their worth. But how would the true worth be estimated? The courts have ruled that "just compensation" means payment at market value; Mr. Plumb says it does not--a bold assertion, indeed. Endless confusion and too many chances for manipulation are involved in determining this issue.

No, Mr. Plumb, your plan will not work. The country is not yet, and may it never be, reduced to the state where it is forced to accept such a settlement of its railroad problem.