GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP COMING, SAYS SENATOR

"All railroads and other transportation systems in the country must, in my opinion, ultimately come under government control," said Edwin F. Ladd, United States Senator from North Dakota and the only representative of the Non-Partisan League in the Senate.

In answer to the question as to how he thought this would occur, Senator Ladd said: "It will come by a general breaking down of the railroads. This will prove to the country the impossibility of satisfactory or efficient management under private ownership, and, in self-defence the Public will demand that the Government step in. After that it will be only a question of time before the Government either owns or controls all the railroads, under some system to be worked out later."

The same thing, according to Senator Ladd, will happen with respect to the coal and ore mines, natural water power, and other public utilities, now owned and managed by private corporations. The trouble will not begin necessarily with the workers, as an outgrowth of the labor question. It may originate entirely with the Public, but it will probably start by the Public and the workers combining the inefficient and minority-benefitting corporations.

"It is hard to say," Senator Ladd concluded, "just when the movement will begin, but there will undoubtedly be signs of it next July, when the railroads attempt to pay their semi-annual dividends, for, in my opinion, they will be absolutely powerless to do so--lay-offs and cuts in expenses notwithstanding. It will be by this first definite sign of weakness that the country in general will be awakened to the need of governmental control."