Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-11
Washington Ticker
BY CLINTON COFFIN.


Associated Press Financial Writer.
Two or three procedural steps which
have been taken by or in behalf OF the
Interstate Commerce Commission in re-
cent days relating to railroad CONSOLE
dation have exposed some tentative
outlines of Federal policy toward that
whole problem. They have, as well,
given considerable cause of surprise to
railroad observers.
The justified conclusions from the
commissions actions mentioned are,
first, that nearly all actual proposals
looking to consolidation now pending,
which have originated in railroad f1nanc-
ing and operating quarters can be
that any new proposals looking to con-
Solidation of existing systems must
harmonic with the national Consolida-
ton plan the commission recently
promulgated, or must be submitted as
petitions urging amendments to the
commission plan which can be support
ed by showing of public benefit liable
to be derived from contamination.
The demand for the dismissal of all
pending applications by railroads for
authority to proceed with conSolida-
lions was presented a week or so ago by
C. d. Mahaf6e, finance director of the
commission, in letters to the CheSa-
peake & Ohio, Wabash, Delaware &
Hudson and Baltimore g. Ohio systems
These four railroads have actually
drafted plans for putting together
Eastern mileage, each of which vary
materially from the commissions ma
tional scheme. The second step, by
which all transportation interests are
notified to adjust their proposals to the
terms of the commission plan or to de-
mand its alteration, was formulated IN
an announcement yesterday.
In addition, 1t Is being generally
rumored now that the commission is
ready to hand down a decision on the
only consolidation proposal actually
completed to the point of awaiting its
decision. In that application the North
ern Pacific and Great Northern Sys-
TENS ask permission to merge and to
take into their new organization the
Burlington system, which would mean
the creation of transport unit with
25 900 miles OF main line. It is rather
generally assumed that the permission
sought by the Northern companies will
be withheld.
Aside from that. the commission or
ders as given pretty clearly establish
the fact that the Federal authority
most concerned with rail regulation
intends to require the recommencement
OF all THlTOdQ ul6ISCT enterprises OIl JlAc
new basis laid down by its plan. Hard
~ anybody thinks that the establish
ment of such requirements will hasten
progress toward the creation of mergers.
Controversy about unemployment,
such as has been precipitated in recent
congressional debates, is considerably
handicapped by the obvious lack of
dependable facts, Secretary of Com
merce Lamont considers.
That's one of the things which al
ways has to be remembered" he COM
mented, that there isn't any way of
telling in the United States how many
people are joblesS or of comparing their
total at present with the total at any
other time. That is the situation which
we have now high hopes of remedying
through the 1880 census.
IF the census plan works effectively
we shall have a sort of base line as to
employment in the United States laid
down in April of this year. Once that
national proportion of persons employed
to persons unemployed is established, it
may be possible to reduce argument in
the future about the actual facts. Using
the 1880 base, 1t should be possible to
make a series of local sample surveys
and estimate reliably what conditions
are. Until we have those returns there
will always be some doubt.
We've been keeping q sort OF spe-
cial check on Detroit. because of its i'm