Note 383 — Chapter XXXII · REMEDIES.

The granting of such power of inspection and publicity has been urged by the Commission upon Congress in previous reports. On page 11 of the Report for December, 1905, the Commission says: “We have also called attention to the fact that certain carriers now refuse to make the statistical returns required by the Commission. For example, railways are required, among other things, to indicate what permanent improvements have been charged to operating expenses. Without an answer to this question it is impossible to determine to what extent gross earnings have been used in improving the property and the actual cost of operation proper.... Certain important railways decline to furnish this information at all, and others furnish it in a very imperfect and unsatisfactory manner.”