Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-27
BUS LAW PASSAGE
IS HELD UNLIKELY
Observers Here Doubt Sue
cess of Couzens' Proposal
for Truck Regulation.
BY GEORGE f. DoYING.

There VIII De no Federal legislation
70 cover operations Of interstate motor
buses, either az the Forthcoming ses-
sion OF Congress or at the next several
sessions. in the view Of observers here,
IL the present plans Of Senator Couzens
Of Michigan and Representative Parker
OF New York are carried out.
Both of these members of Congress,
who Jointly sponsored the bill passed
by the House at the last session for the
regulation Of interstate buses. have an
nounced that at the coming session
they will introduce bills 10 include
freight trucks as well as BUSES.
Former Bill Opposed.
This was done when the first bus
bill was introduced in 1925 and resulted
In such strenuous opposition on the
part Of truck operators and manufac-
turers that the bus operators. the State
regulatory commissioners and the rail-
roads themselves quickly decided i:
would be useless to attempt to put
through such a measure. Consequent
", the bill was redrafted to cover only
the operation of interstate buses and
in that form it has been before every
session of Congress since 1925. In 1890
the House finally passed 1t, but the bill
died in the Senate.
Now Senator Couzens has announced
that he will reintroduce the bill, but
will include trucks. The Interstate
Commerce Commission in its report on
the Is per cent railroad freight rate
case expressed the belief that Congress
and the State Legislatures should "di-
rect their attention to the proper regu-
lation in the public interest of all COM
petitive forms of transportation"
This led Representative Parker. who
is chairman of the House Committee
on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,
to announce in an address before the
Convention of the National Association
of Railroad and Utilities Commission
ers at Richmond last week that he be-
ieves the bill should include trucks
as well as BUSES.
A special committee on motor vehicle
legislation of the Association of Com
miSsioners presented a report at Rich
mond containing a draft of bill sub
Stantially identical with the measure
passed by the House last year, but in
GLIDING truck operation. This bill was
not specifically Endorsed by the asso-
citation. but. a IT,. resolution was adopted
authorizing the special committee and
the regular committee on legislation to
cooperate in working for the enact
ment of any measure that seemed best
designed to meet the situation, whether
it provided in one bill for control of
buses and trucks, or for their control
under separate laws, or for the regu-
lation of BUSES alone.
Commissioners Views
Thirty-eight States were represented
at the Richmond convention, and many
of the commissioners privately ex-
pressed the view that the injection of
truck operation into the proposal to
regulate interstate buses would almost
certainly mean the failure to enact any
legislation for at least a considerable
period of time.
Similar views were expressed by S.
A. Markell, chairman of the Legislative
Committee of the National Association
OF Motor Bus Operators. Likewise D.
w. Russell of Detroit, operator of large
fleets of buses and trucks. declared
that the two classes of operation can
not be governed by a single law with
out injustice to one or the other.
(Copyright, 1917