Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-13
TRUCK CURB URGED
TO SAVE RAILROADS
Seaboard Air Line Official
Asserts Situation Is Ex.
tremely Critical.

Commercial highway carriers which
are eating into railroad revenues should
be destroyed If this is necessary to pre-
serve the railroads as the fundamental
transportation agency of this country,
w. l.. Stanley, representing the Sea-
board Air Line, now in receivership, as
serted today at the Interstate Com
merce Commission Inotor-ran co-ordi-
nation hearing.
Stanley, former vice president of
the Seaboard and now public relations
counsel for the receiver, gave his views
under crosS-eXamination by William H.
Chandler, traff1c manager for the New
York Merchants Association, who had
sought application on a statement by
Stanley covering regulation of trucks
and buses.
Urges Territorial Ban.
Stanley had recommended a reglla-
ton providing that no motor vehicle
be permitted to operate in a territory
adequately served" by a railroad unless
there was Giving wage" there for
both.
Chambers query then as to whether
the rail executive favors elimination of
the motor carriers from the field where
their competition prevents railroads
from operating profitaby, brought an
emphatic animation.
Stanley told Chief Examiner Leo j.
Flynn, in charge Of the hearing at the
willard, that State regulation of high
to insufficient funds, and that Federal
intervention was necessary.
State Laws Held Ignored.
Carriers ignore the State laws, he
said, getting a laugh with his assertion
that there are more bootleg truck OPP
orators in Georgia than there are boot
leg moonshiners.
Service, rates and taxation of all car
riers should be equalized Stanley said.
Even the private trucker who handles
his own goods should be regulated, he
said.
The railroads can never be displaced.
but must remain as the backbone of
transportation, Stanley asserted, but
he added that under existing conditions
the outlook sis not only serious, but
alarming"
Traffic Man Testifies.
He followed to the stand G. z. Phil
lips, passenger traffic manager, and r.
T. Phillips, assistant general freight
agent OF the Seaboard, who testified to
the extent that buses and trucks were
cutting into the lines revenues
Phillips, explaining supplementary
bus service which the road discontinued
because of loss, said 1t demonstrated
that buses. when forced to operate
with a view to the economies involved,
could not prosper.
Railroads Face Crisis.
Rail carriers as q whole face the
most serious situation since the war,
and the trend is toward breakdown
that would be national calamity"
DIR. Thomas Conway, jr., president of
the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad,
testified yesterday afternoon.
DR.. Conway, the last of the witnesses
presented by group of electric inter-
urban lines operating through Illinois,
Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Mich
igan, offered their recommendations
for regulating truck traffic, which, it
had been testified, Is destroying rail
revenues.
Both common carrier trucks, oper-
ating between designated terminals, and
contract vehicles, going where they will,
should be regulated, he declared.
Coordination Is Desired.
In effect, they would only be per-
mitted where the service they furnish
is deemed necessary and then only
under such conditions as entail COM
plete coordination with existing essen
tial transportation agencies.
Operations, even including rates,
would be under the administration of
Joint State boards, with the Interstate
Commerce Commission acting as a
court of appeals.
He favored a co-ordinated service
under which trucks would perform the |
actual pick up and delivery of freight |
at terminals, and the loaded truck |
bodies themselves be transported be-
tween rail heads on nat cars, the rail |
rate for this transfer being fixed at q |
scale comparable to highway rates.
George s. Lee, vice president in |
charge of traffic of the Railway Express !
Agency, told of the inroads on this |
business made by the trucks. Lower |
rates and less rigid requirements were
blamed,