EXPOSING THE TRANSPORTATION MONOPOLY
Frank, John P.
Exposing The Transportation Monopoly And A Plea For A Race Over The Airways JUSTICE IN TRANSPORTATION, by Arne Wip-rud, with an Introduction by Thurman Arnold. Ziff-Davis. $2.50. Reviewed...
...After the war, when new equipment is available, there should be room for a race to give service from which the public can be a substantial beneficiary...
...The Board gave certificates both to TWA and Western...
...In that edition he could deal comprehensively with the problem of competition in air transportation...
...4? On the other hand, airline operation compared to railroad operation is fairly cheap...
...The answer to the last question seems very clear...
...It is a book by a superb lawyer who knows transportation and who is a deadly and effective enemy of exploitation of the people through transportation monopoly...
...In the other fields of traffic, particularly in railroading, primary attention at this late date in our history can only be directed toward curative measures...
...In other words, we must really decide that we value competition if we are to have it...
...There are a number of subsidiary questions which will merely be listed here in the hope that someday someone more closely acquainted with the field will discuss the matter: 1 ? Air transportation before the war was monopolized almost as completely as was possible...
...The great problem is how many of these certificates to allow and how to choose the airline to receive the certificate...
...Three more carried about 15 per cent and the remaining carriers split the last 5 per cent...
...There were about 12 airlines in the United States and 4 of those airlines carried over 80 per cent of the traffic...
...At the same time, they are open-minded men, unafraid of new ideas...
...The members are public-spirited and able men who are obviously honestly trying to do the right thing...
...JUST because Arne Wiprud has a talent for under-standing the function of competition in transportation, he should be encouraged to write another book or expand this brief volume in a second edition...
...Before the war all the lines together were using less than 400 planes and plane prices should go down after the war...
...The Civil Aeronautics Board in its decisions in the next 5 years will largely determine the nature and extent of competition in airline traffic in the United States...
...Most important saving is the obvious one: no road bed is required...
...Before the war, the hold of a 4-company airline monopoly was almost complete, but because of expansion, there is still time for preventive medicine if we want it...
...In other words, for the reader who wants to know just what monopoly in transportation is, how it actually functions from day to day, and what it means to all of us, this is the newest, best, and most readable book...
...Second, the personnel of the Civil Aeronautics Board, the principal airline regulatory agency, is of a quality to inspire hope...
...It is a fervent expression of an ideal in an area of contemporary thought and deed which needs fervent attack...
...Reviewed by John P. Frank ONE prerogative of the book reviewer is to write about something other than the book he is supposed to review...
...In the California case, the Board was faced with the request of TWA, a major line, and Western Airlines, a minor line, for the opportunity of competing with United, a major, between San Francisco and Los Angeles...
...It is a book of passion based on facts, and is by that token a reminder of an earlier era in our history when American political leaders frequently spoke of transpor-tati6n evils with passion...
...It deserves the wide sale which it is enjoying...
...THE Civil Aeronautics Board has been facing the competition problem head-on and its decisions hold hope for the future...
...the biggest expansion in air transportation should come after the war...
...Competition by the lines has a real value...
...Discussion of competition in air transportation at this time is especially important for 2 reasons : First, the pattern of air transportation is not yet set...
...That formidable title is the name given to commercial airline operating licenses, and the airlines must have such a certificate for operation between any two points...
...If weak lines are given certificates the subsidy bill goes up...
...Since this reviewer intends to do precisely that, comment on the book itself will be very brief: This is a grand book...
...Pan-American, for example, which operates overseas and has no peacetime competition, is notoriously less efficient and serviceable from a passenger's standpoint, than domestic lines which do have competition...
...For example, an airline cannot operate between New York and Chicago unless the Civil Aeronautics Board says it can and gives it a certificate...
...Air transportation is just beginning to pay for itself and up to now it has existed on Government subsidies...
...In the Boston case, it gave 2 major and one small carrier new certificates to serve that important city, with Board Chairman Welch Pogue and members Josh Lee and Edward Warner taking the strongest position for competition...
...Even in wartime there are noticeable differences of quality of service between the various domestic lines...
...2? Competition can cost the taxpayer money...
...This book devotes primary, though by no means exclusive, attention to the surface carriers, railway, motor, and water, the bailiwick of the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...3? In the struggle for new routes, it will, almost al- ways, be more expensive and in some respects less convenient to let the little carriers in...
...The principal immediate control of the Civil Aeronautics Board over airline competition is through its certificates of public convenience and necessity...
...Wiprud might well discuss in detail in some future publication his own blueprints for the future...
...The Board's lawyer, John Wanner, recommended that Western be given the certificate primarily on the ground that such action would encourage competition...
...5? There remains a problem of fact as to how far competition serves a useful purpose among the airlines so long as they all charge substantially the same rates and use the same type of planes...
...In the next edition, perhaps he can enter more deeply into the bailiwick of the Civil Aeronautics Board...
...In these cases the Board laid down the important principle that "Where there is sufficient traffic to support competitive service, there is a presumption, although not conclusive, in favor of competition...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 29
