Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-05
bus TAX ADEQUATE,
HEARING IS TOLD
Government Experts State
ment Draws Questions
From Railroad Counsel.

The controversial issue of the amount
Of taxation paid by commercial motor
vehicles In relation to their use of the
highways arose here today for the first
time at the Interstate Commerce Com
mission hearing on motor-rail co-ordi-
nation and brought sharp questioning
from railroad counsel on statements by
Thomas H. Macdonald, chief of the
Bureau of Roads, Department of Agri-
culture, and w. H. Swinney of Pitts
burgh, controller of the West Penn
Zation.
Holds Tax Payments Adequate.
Macdonald, going into the subject of
road construction in connection with
vehicle usage, had offered the opinion
that bus and truck traffic makes very
little difference in the building OF
roads; we would build them just as wide
and thick" and had coupled this with
the observation that these commercial
vehicles, by fees and taxes, are making
tional demands they impose on the
highways.
Macdonald also said he hoped no
"uneconomic regulations" would be i'm
posed on motor vehicles, as they would
defeat their own end.
This brought immediate question
from T. r. Ware, counsel for the Rock
Island system, as to whether at is the
duty of your bureau to make any study
of bus taxation?" and when MacDon-
aid replied in the affirmative, Ware
wanted to know If the duties of the bu-
reau extended to the right to recon-
mend any regulations"
Macdonald, however, disclaimed any
intent to propose any positive recon-
mendations.
Defends Bus Taxes.
In the course of his testimony,
Swinney, whose concern operates among
other things electric lines and buses
in five States and the District, asserted
buses were paying Substantial taxes"
Swinney voiced the opinion that the
electric interburban is doomed, and told
of fruitless efforts, including fare re-
duction, his concern had made to help
business.
Rather than interstate bus regulation,
he proposed agreements between States
for regulation of interstate business,
with the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion or some other Federal agency step
ping in where these agreements could
not be worked out.
The Blue Ridge Line, which is the
West Penn subsidiary operating into
Washington is the only bus line in the
organizations holdings that showed
profit last year, it was brought out.
Private cars were held out as the
cause of declining commercial pas
senger carrying.
Clyde Brown, vice president of the
New York Central, and G.. G. Woodruff,
chairman of the board of the Universal
Car Loading g. Distribution Co., occu-
pied most of the time at the afternoon
session of the hearing yesterday, dis
cussing the handling of leSs-than-car-
load freight in competition with trucks
by using steel container cars.
System Provides Economies.
These cars are made up of series
of containers in which the freight is
segregated, according to destination,
providing many economies over the or
binary method of Jumping several ship
ments together in box car.
The idea advanced during their teS-
timony was to ship these containers,
which are interchangeable, to certain
principal distributing points by rail and
then pick them up on trucks for way
station delivery. A new rate structure,
however, would have to be set up to de-
velop fully this plan, which the New
York Central now is working with, it
was brought out.
J. A. Strayer. general traffic man
ager of the American Short Line Rail-
way Association, spoke in favor of reg
ulation of rates, rules and practices for
interstate motor carriers. He would
have motor equipment examined under
the same conditions as railroad motive
power and would also subject drivers
to physical and mental tests.
Max Edwards, assistant marketing
specialist of the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics, introduced into the record
a number of studies on trucking as af-
fecting farm products that have been
made by the Department of Agriculture.
The hearing is being conducted at
the Willard Hotel by Chairman Ezra
Brainerd, jr, of the commission, and
Examiner Leo j. Flynn.