THE RAILROAD CRISIS AHEAD

...When Congress does its duty, he avers, the people of the West and South will have more industry and greater opportunities at home, the output of the entire nation will increase as the surplus labor of the South and West develops Southern and Western national resources for the benefit of the entire nation...

...The continuing increase of the Army means added burdens despite the shipment of many thousands of troops abroad...

...It is the source and center of the railroads' difficulties and of many of the nation's ills...

...Next, the trucks and buses are facing a shortage of tires and gasoline, and Washington says the latter will''be much worse next Spring, and this will throw added burdens on the rails...

...that discriminatory rates are keeping the South and the West in a colonial status...

...So he insists that "the people's battle has not been won" and that it will never cease "until these evils have been removed altogether...

...The Railroad Crisis Ahead By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD WHETHER ONE believes that this was the proper time for Vice President Wallace to attack the railroads or not, his recent address constitutes a most important economic and political event...

...the old assertion that "railroad freight rates in this country are the lowest in the world...

...Mr...

...The banker-control which has led in the past to such crimes against the public as the ruining of the New Haven Railroad, the Erie, and numerous other Eastern railroads, to say nothing of the Milwaukee, still exists, if to a considerably lesser degree...

...Should the coming Winter b« marked by heavy storms, there is bound to be serious trouble, especially as there is an unusually heavy grain crop to be moved, part of which is destined for Africa, Sicily, Italy, etc...

...The battle against monopoly controls, he says, "has been without permanent victory...

...that non-competitive rates deprive agriculture and industry of the benefits of more efficient and cheaper forms of transportation, competition being eliminated...

...financial interests, through court appeals, legislative rules of rate-making, corporate manipulations, and conspiracies have continued to exact their tolls...

...The financial exploitation of our railroads, which has placed an unbearable burden on the people, is without parallel in our American life...

...Wallace "makes five serious charges, that excessive transportation rates burden agriculture, industry, and trade...

...The Vice President does not exaggerate the gravity of the situation and the menace to American industrial development inherent in the present railroad situation...

...But it is the truth that this is in a large degree the case...

...He is entirely justified in staging his onslaught now, even though we are in the middle of the war, because there is no time to be lost in facing the situation and preparing remedies to which we may be forced by a collapse of the railways in the course of the next 12 months, or by the conditions which will prevail when the peace comes...

...The Vice President's conclusion is that competition must be restored and that the Interstate Commerce Commission, against which he directs a large portion of his attack, should protect the public interest, and that our greatest need is to recast our transportation laws to insure the utmost development of each form of transportation...

...The debt is still there, but borne by the public instead of the stockholders...

...The railroads have replied to Mr...

...Wallace did not, however, concern himself with the immediate emergency, but with the whole railway problem with which public and government have been concerned ever since the reconstruction period following the Civil War...

...As one high expert who has spent all his life in railroading has written me: "The railroads now are slickly transferring a large part of their indebtedness to the taxpayer, through the Interstate Commerce Commission's grant of increased rates, ostensibly to cover a raise in wages, but in truth to win the enormous net income in which they are swimming...

...A Just Indictment This is a tremendous indictment, but in the writer's judgment, it is correct...

...For the truth is that, despite the magnificent showing made by the railroads since Pearl Harbor, they will be facing conditions during the next six months which may result in grave difficulties if not disaster, which will make inevitable consideration of the entire railroad problem...

...The spread of the war in the Pacific and its increasing intensity mean greater and greater stress on the transcontinental lines, one of which has already had to be helped by others...

...Wallace's Five Charges Mr...

...They particularly attack the Vice President because of his assertion that Wall Street still controls the railroads...

...Wallace by saying that this is old stuff, "rattling the dry bones of ancient prejudices," "a savage and unwarranted attack," and by the repetition of...

...Meanwhile, the labor shortage is increasing despite the recruitment of women...

...These are all things that must from now on be thrashed out in the court of public opinion as a necessary post-war reorganization measure, and the Vice President in my judgment deserves the thanks of the country for bringing it to the front...

...Curiously enough, they defend the ICC against which they have so often levelled their guns...

...The industry, as he correctly says, "has failed to offer anything constructive and, therefore, the people must look to their duly elected representatives in Congress...

...that newer forms of transportation are being brought under monopoly control, and that monopolistic conditions already present in transportation are fostering monopolies in industry...