The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-09-18
BY ROBERT RUARK Waterbury Democrat Washington
 Correspondent


 BY ROBERT RUARK
 Waterbury Democrat Washington
 Correspondent
 This is a town where you have tC cut your way through three layer, of preliminary red tape before you can get to the basic red ribbon, but the Ohice of Defense Transporta. ton seems to be carrying things 2 mite too far, even for the nations capital. Maybe complete bureauc. racy is necessary to win the war, but sometimes you wonder. Listen: Down in Dallas, Tex, .fouI wholesale florists wanted to con- serve their trucking facilities, SC they matched themselves a plan They cut the delivery area into four districts, with each of the four deal CTS assigned to a single district on given day.
 Each dealer, then, makes all de- lveries for himself and the other three florists in his specific area The plan further provides for rota- tion of districts, thus equalizing mileage.
 Other joint-action plans have been adopted by other dealers all over the nation. They hew pretty much to the Dallas gentlemen's line, and all seem to be we'll planned efforts toward conservation. Which is, of course, all very fine.
 But if these people just sat down and decided to put their schemes into effect without first getting a Go head" from ODT, they are apt to find themselves all jammed up with the Department of Justice.
 It seems that if you want to get together with your neighbor and pool your delivery resources, you've either got to submit full plans to ODT and await clearance or else you can go ahead with your scheme and then file your plans. If ODT and Justice don't like them, in this latter alternative, maybe Thurman Arnold drops down and trust busts you.
 THE LONG HAUL
 CATEGORY
 All this applies to local delivery joint actions. ODT has another catgeroy, called lover the road carriers" which covers things like bus and trucking lines. Says the ODT bible: Joint action agree ments can be put into effect by over-the-road carriers only in ac- cordance with specific ODT or ders. No such orders have yet been issued"
 Help!
 Let us go into this thing calmly. The natural question is: Why is all this fuss and f1utter necessary, if all want to do is pool my de- livery resources with Bill Smith? How does the Department of Jus tice fit into the picture? We aren't gangsters. We're just couple of florists trying to save rubber and gas"
 Says ODT: Since most over the-road carriers are operating in accord with state and interstate commerce regulations, you might bust some of the antitrust laws if you start making private agree ments with your competitors. You might wind up as a monopoly, against the best public interests, and as such the Justice Depart ment is interested in you. We've got to be sure you aren't pulling fast one.
 Continues ODT: If you are an over-the-road carrier, a special order must be given by us author izing your plan. We have not yet given any such orders, be- cause we've just scratched the surface of this problem. A num- Der of plans have been returned to the carriers for further infor- nation. We are thinkin gof get ting out some instructions. HOW COME
 THE HOCUS-POCUS
 Question: But we are not an over the road carrier. We are just a couple of florists named Joe. We are local dealers, and we wouldn't recognize a monopoly if it bit us on the leg. How come all this hocus-pocus as far as we are concerned?"
 Answers ODT: We'll, how do we know you don't want to knock of a couple of unprofitable delivery routes under the name of conser- vation? Maybe there are couple of blocks you'd rather not serve.
 So this is how it sums up. If you submit your conservation plan and it is approved, you are clean forever more.
 If you go ahead with your plan and then submit it to ODT, you are taking chance ODT won't like it and will sic Justice onto you.
 And If you just ignore ODT and Justice, and work out your own salvation, really dire things may befall you.
 But it does seem like a couple of plain citizens could sit down and work out joint-benefit de- livery plan without all this com- doesn't it? A lot of peo- pie are going to be afraid to pick l up a hitch-hiker without first get ting the green light from Wash ingtOn