1958 - Railroad's Plight: It's Time For Action

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Roanoke Times - March 13, 1958

Railroad's Plight: It's Time For Action

   A Senate subcommittee several weeks ago held extensive hearings on the 
financial condition of the nation's railroads. A procession of witnesses 
agreed that financial and other problems of the roads are steadily worsening.
   The story by now is a familiar one: Railroads are engaged in a struggle 
for survival under the handicap of discriminatory taxes, mounting costs, 
excessive regulation, and subsidized competition. Such facts have been 
cited in various studies previously. Two years ago a presidential 
commission headed by Commerce Secretary Weeks recommended a measure of 
relief for the rails. The principal proposal called for relaxation of 
Government regulation to allow the roads some leeway in fixing rates 
competitive with other forms of transportation.
   Present indications are that little of a substantial nature will be done 
at this session of Congress to relieve the hard-pressed railroads. Failure 
to take prompt action would be unfortunate. Railroads are a national 
necessity. It is not a case of doing a favor for their stockholders but of 
keeping an industry healthy and vigorous for efficient service to the 
commerce of the whole country. The public interest is deeply involved.
   Railroads are vital for defense as well as for the national economy. In 
the event of war, the fate of the nation could very well hinge upon the 
efficiency of its rail transportation system.
   Primarily, what the railroads are asking is less regulation. Regulatory 
practices at national and state levels are outmoded - hangovers from the 
days when rails were a transportation monopoly. Today there is scan 
justification for most of the them. As for federal regulation, the 
situation is succinctly stated by the Shreveport, La., Times:

   The ICC attitude toward rail freight rates is one that in many instances 
simply does not make sense - in fact, in some instances it is downright 
silly. Railroads, offering to carry freight at much lower rates than the 
ICC sets, are told by the ICC that they must charge higher rates. These 
higher rates invariably are higher than the truck lines charge. The result 
is that the federal government, through the ICC, forces the railroads to 
lose business on which they could make money, and, in effect,  forces 
business away from the railroads and into the hands of a competitor - a 
competitor which receives many governmental perquisites at the federal and 
state levels that are not permitted the railroads.

   We could not do without the railroads. They are entitled to make a fair 
profit and to be allowed to operate without unreasonable and unrealistic 
restraints that prevent them from meeting competition on equitable terms. 
There has been ample investigation of the problem so that there is no doubt 
about what ought to be done. What is demanded of Congress now is action.

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link