The Washington times., 1929-02-22
RAIL ROW
OUT IN THE
OPEN
By MERRYLE STANLEY
RUKEYSER
Copyright. 1929. by Universal
Service. Inc.)

SeENcee Ahc'b
NEW YORK, Feb. 22.-Hav-
ing despaired of reaching an
agreement with the Pennsyl.
vania Railroad on. broad pro-
gram for redistributing the rail.
roads of the East inJo four
main systems, the Baltimore
and Ohio and the Van Sweringen
roads have changed their STRAIT
egy and gone direct to the In.
terstate Commerce Commission
with their piece.meal plans.
The advantage Of presenting a
unified schedule on which all the
competitors agreed has been lost.
The Interstate Commerce Com
mission accordingly will become
the storm center, and the diff
ferences, which have not yet been
ironet out in private conference,
will be threshed out in public
sessions. There accordingly will
be a division of the spoils in ac-
cordance with the Wilsonian for.
mula of "open covenants openly
arrived at" The original concep-
tion for a four-system plan was
that of o. p. Van Sweringen.
Though the New York Central
and the Baltimore and Ohio
warmed up to. the proposals. the
Pennsylvania has more or less
consistently stood apart.
After nearly three years of de-
lay, the Eastern carriers resumed
discussions last summer, and
agreement seemed in sight. A
member Of the i. c. C. was re-
sponsible for resuming the dis
cussions as a result of an infor-
NAL inquiry to the railroad execu-
tives as to what progress was
being made. Eight months ago,
the other roads seemed willing
to make concessions to the Penn
sylvania viewpoint, and in August
General William w. Atterbury,
president of the Pennsylvania
lines told me that he was hope
full that the principal railroads
of the East would come to an
agreement, and be in position to
present a general plan to the
commission before the end OF
1928.
Soon after, however, 1t became
apparent that leading factors in
other systems did not share this
optimism. AS long ago as Sep
tember 25 last, this column re-
ported that differences of opin-
ion on crucial points still pre-
vented the principal trunk lire
of the East from agreeing on a
specific plan for consolidating all
four great systems.
The Van Sweringen group.
which already has the Erie,
would seek permission to acquire
the Delaware, Lackawanna &
Western, as an additional en-.
trance to the port of New York.
There is also opposition to grant.
ing the Lehigh Valley to the
Pennsylvania.
Another point of cleavage was
the desire of the Pennsylvania to
get trackage rights on the Nickel
Plate west of Buffalo to Fort
Wayne. The Pennsylvania point
ed out that this would give a
more direct route to the West.
and hence would be in the public
interest. The Nickel Plate. fear.
ing competition, evidently was
inclined to go no further than to
concede the right to move empty
freight cars. Pennsylvania am.
bitions in this direction ran coun.
ter to the Nickel Plate-New York
Central view that these roads
should be supreme in the dis.
trict through Buffalo, and that
Pennsylvania and the B. & o,
should be strongest in the Phil
adelphia and Baltimore area.
Each of the four systems plans
to have lateral lines into the
territories of the others, but the
main competition in the North
is to be between the New York
Central and the Nickel Plate.
and in the Southern traffic stream
between Pennsylvania and the