Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-06-12
After Government Operation, What7

The instructive and Illuminating discussion
Of the railroad problem by Director General
Hines before the Omaha Chamber of Com
merce, makes it plain that the big question in
front of US is, AFTER government operation,
what?" Ia,
Though there will doubtless be an earnest de-
mand from various quarters for permanent gov
eminent ownership of the railroads. opinion is
almost undivided among the practical transport
tation men who have had charge Of the gov
ernment's railroad activities during the war,
that speedy return to private ownership. and
control is the only safe course, and also that
unconditional return, or return to the pre-
war system of railroads in this country, is I'M
wise and impossible. The taking over Of the
roads by the government has been accompanied
by unprecedented increase of operating ex-
penses which will not soon recede, greater in
creases than the increase in rates, and the sit
uation has been saved only by'th governments
ability to handle the railroads as whole and
its subsidy out OF the federal treasury In the
return to the private owners, the cooperative
methods, consolidated control, with freedom
from multiplied and conflicting regulation, must
be retained, yet without opening the door to
renewal Of old abuses or permitting the strong
roads to crowd the weaker ones to the wall.
The most feasible plan to accomplish the
desired object contemplates the grouping of all
the lines for operation into a comparatively few
large railway systems. Mr. Hines ventures the
opinion that twelve or fifteen such systems
would answer the purpose and that they can be
50 arranged that each group will include proper
ties Of approximately similar character and i'm
portance and thus equalze the profitable and
Improbable factors.
Assuming that the roads will be returned
to private ownership and that consultations
will be necessary to put them on sound fnan-
cial basis and make them equal to the task they
must perform, it must be determined whether
the groups shall be formed to compete in the
same territory or between different territories.
Mr.. Hines evidently favors Encouragement of
railway systems that will restore competitive con-
ditions by giving each of the large cities or i'm
portant traffic centers two or more competing
roads, Another plan would cut the country up
into transportation divisions, corresponding, for
example, with our railway mail service divisions,
and put all Of the roads in each division under
one operating control. This would leave COM
division. 1t would give the advantage and
economies of absolutely unified management,
though at the price of conceding complete
monopoly in charges and service.
Under either plan, however, rates would
naturally be uniform because, p{ described sub
ject to government approval as they are now
and have been in recent years. If rates are to
be fixed on compensatory basis, as they must
be in the long run, that plan would produce the
lowest rates that would most reduce the cost of
operation and eliminate duplication and waste.
The cost of railroad transportation enters into
the price of everything we eat or wear, of
nearly every convenience and comfort of life.
1t is part of the daily cost of living of each
man, woman or child. Uninterrupted and ef-
hcient railway service is absolutely necessary
to keep the wheels of industry revolving. In
prime Importance to every section of the coun-
try a satisfactory solution of the railroad prob
lem holds place with our most urgent after-the-
war que stionS, y .