The Border Vidette

DISASTER FOR THE RAILROADS

Nineteen-thirty-one, according to a railroad spokesman, was the most disastrous year in the rails history. In the face of that, their taxes aggregated about four times the sum available for dividends, and amounted to $265 for every man, woman and child in the entire country. Federal taxes, which are based on net income, were naturally lower than in other years, but all other forms of railroad taxes were higher. The tax collector absorbed $7.30 out of every $100 of gross revenue-the largest proportion on record. On the other hand, we have made the railroads one of our foremost taxpayers, and on the other, we have allowed competing forms of transport, regulated and taxed to a far lesser degree, to unfairly obtain a great volume of business that once went to the railroad tracks with fine highways, partly built at railroad expense, and along these highways roll the trucks and buses over which Interstate Commerce Commission has no authority. The inland waterways float boats which furnish government subsidized transport. Unless immediate steps are taken to correct this condition, the railroads are doomed to failure. There is no other way out. The rail industry is the greatest single employer and purchaser of supplies in the country-and if it goes into bankruptcy, the public will be the principal sufferer. Intelligence, fairness and our own selfish interests demand the formulation of a regulatory policy that will apply equitable to all of transportation.