Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-22
B. O. 0. AND NICKEL PLATE AIDED
BY C. C.. RAIL MERGER PLANSI
Commission Declared Anxious to Establish
Balance Among Leading Systems
In Eastern Territory.
epecial pispatch to The star.

Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, December 21.-Further
study Of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission plan of railroad consolidation
ofhcially announced today, after having
been outlined Friday in a copyrighted
dispatch to Dow, Jones & Co., clearly
indicates that the main advantages from
1t in the East will be those obtained
by the Baltimore 81 Ohio and the
Nickel Plate interests.
The commission has obviously at
tempted to establish a proper balance
between the four le>-@rg systems in this
territory, =amely, the Pennsylvania,
New York Central, Baltimore & Ohio
and Nickel Plate. In doing this it has
recommended substantial addition to
the Baltimore & Ohio and Nickel Plate,
taking from the Pennsylvania the Nor
folk & Western and adding to the New
York Central the Virginia railway.
B. & o. Contention.
The Baltimore & Ohio's contention
has always been that it should have
the Reading and the Central Railroad
of New Jersey in order to complete
its line to New York. This has been
agreed to by the commission. In addi-
ton 1t gives the Baltimore system the
Buffalo, Rochester 81 Pittsburgh and
Buffalo 81 Susquehanna, in which 1t
has recently acquired large stock in
terest, and also the Chicago & Alton
system. 1t goes further and permits
the Baltimore & Ohio a half interest
in Henry Ford's recently owned road,
the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, which
was acquired last Summer by the Penn
road Corporation, and one-half interest
in the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louis
vile, which the Baltimore & Ohio in
cluded in its own plan, but which the
present owners, the Southern Railway
and Louisville g. Nashville, contested.
To the Nickel Plate the commission
proposes to allocate the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western, which has
been the one important New York-Buf-
falo line that has been outside all pre-
vious merger plans and which the New
York Central at one time is under
stood to have demanded in trade for
its holdings of Lehigh Valley. The
Nickel Plate is compelled to relinquish
that part of the Chesapeake & Ohio
which gives it an entrance into Chi
cago. This Is passed on to the Wabash,
or fifth system created by the commits
sion. The Van Sweringen system is to
have trackage rights over the Baltimore
& Ohio, Southern Railroad, Big Four
and Louisville G. Nashville, probably to
compensate it for the advantages that
the Wabash system will have in the
South through ownership of the Nor
folk & Western and Seaboard Air Line.
Western Maryland.
To the Wabash are also assigned the
Western Maryland. now owned by the
Baltimore & Ohio, the Wheeling &
Lake Erie, Pittsburgh & West Virginia
and Lehigh Valley, which are popularity
believed to be to some extent under
PENNSYLVANIA Railroad influence, though
this has been repeatedly denied.
There is plenty of opportunity for
long and bitter fight over the plan as
It now stands. The Pennsylvania, for
instance, will undoubtedly make siren
uous objection to the loss of the Nor
folk & Western, which is one OF its
best investments, and to the ALLEGATION
of the Reading to the Baltimore &
Ohio. Just how friendly the New York