Trainman News

On
Policy
Proposals
RRs Pleased,
Truckers Not
Over Report

WASHINGTON--The railroads are pleased with it. The truckers are unhappy over it all.

Such was the sentiment last week from those two corners as a House Commerce subcommittee headed by Rep. Oren Harris (D-Ark) conducted hearings on the Cabinet Committee Report on transportation policy which was made to President Eisenhower last April.

The Administration proposes to relax government regulation of railroads and truck lines.

Present transportation policy "operates to prevent or severely limit realization of the most economical use of the nation's transportation plant," J. Carter Fort, vice-president of Association of American Railroads. told the subcommittee.

He declared that because the various types of transportation can't compete vigorously with each other under the present system, the public is deprived of the "economy which would result from the distribution of traffic in accord with the real capabilities of the several types of carriers."

From the other corner, James F. Pinckney, general counsel of American Trucking Association, declared that "chaos" in regulations would result if the present transportation policy were altered as recommended by the Cabinet committee.

The recommendations, said Pinckney, "would substitute government-fostered price war competition among freight haulers for a policy of keeping freight rates equal and stable.

The prospects for discriminatory rate making that the report's recommendations present are over-whelming."

Weeks Chairman
Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks was chairman of the Cabinet committee and other (Continued on Page 5)
RRs Pleased,
Truckers Not
Over Report

(Continued from Page 1)

members were: Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, Director of Defense Mobilization Arthur S. Flemming, Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey, Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield, Secretary of Agriculture Ezra T. Benson and Director of the Bureau of the Budget Rowland R. Hughes.

Approximately a dozen recommendations are contained in the report.

Main proposals would take away some of the rate-making power now held by Interstate Commerce Commission and would rely, where feasible, on the forces of competition to set proper rates for carrying freight and passengers.

Another recommendation would shorten the period under which ICC can suspend railroad and truck rate changes. More authority would be given the railroad to change their rates for long hauls and for volume freight in order to meet competition.

Water carriers would lose their exemption from regulation when carrying commodities in bulk.

Under the proposals, trucking and barge lines would be required to make all their rates public in order to stimulate competitive pricing by other forms of transportation.

AAR's Fort told the subcommittee that nearly all rail transportation comes under ICC regulations, but the commission governs only approximately one-third of intercity truck transportation and about one-tenth of transportation on the chief inland waterways.

He declared it's an "indefensible situation" when the railroads are kept in check while much of their competition goes unrestrained.

ATA's Pinckney, in his testimony, said the Cabinet committee's proposals would permit discrimination and higher freight rates for many users of rail service, including shippers of farm goods, mineral ores and forestry products.

Also found suffering, he said, would be small towns and shippers of small amounts of freight.

In earlier testimony, Commerce Secretary Weeks denied charges that the proposals to lessen federal regulation of transportation were made to aid the railroads at the expense of truck lines and other carriers.

He also denied charges that the recommended changes "would permit one form of transportation to engage in selective rate cutting in competitive areas, in order to drive out competition."

The Cabinet committee, he added, "has no such desire or intention and believes that the proposed amendment would not and could not have this effect."

The importance of maintaining a strong common carrier system was stressed by Defense Secretary Wilson because, he said, "primary reliance" will be placed on this portion of the transportation industry in time of an emergency.

The capacity for immediate expansion of common carriers in time of war, he declared, "has proved to be a reservoir which is essential in the defense effort."

At the hearings, the House subcommittee was told by Mobilization Director Flemming that if the recommendations in the report were put into effect, "no revolution in transport would occur, no form of transport would be forced out of business, nor would any one attain monopoly power."