Evening star., 1943-06-18
1rainmen's S President
Charges Railroads
Planning Monopoly.
Whitney Tells Pay PoneI
Biddle SqueIehed Move
To Prosecute Carriers
By the Associated Press.

by lHc aocOSidbSu EICSS-
NEW YORK, June 18.-A. F..
Whitney. president of the Brother
hood of Railroad Trainmen, charged
today that the railroad industry was
evolving a monopoly in transporta-
tion.
Testifying before an emergency
panel investigating the demands Of
five railroad brotherhoods for a 30
per cent increase in wages. Mr.. Whit
hey said he based his information
on memorandum prepared by the
antitrust division of the Justice
Department, which was suppressed
last September but which recently
came to light through the efforts
of the Brotherhood of Railroad
Trainmen."
He said the report set forth that
the transportation monopoly would
determine the location of industry,
the sources from which raw mate
rials would be drawn, the markets to
which the finished products would
move and possibilities of shifting
population and industry and en-
ployment opportunities for huge
masses of the working population"
Three Indictments Squelched.
Mr.. Whitney testified that the
Justice Department began a GRIM
inal investigation under Thurman
Arnold, then head of the antitrust
division, more than year ago, with
a view of enforcing antitrust laws
IN tho tro rorS,ortotio,, folJ Tbo l.,
quiry, he said, reached the point of
a grand jury investigation in Chi
cago.
There three indictments were
squelched and suppressed by Attor-
ney General Francis Biddle after
the War and Navy Departments and
the Office of Defense Transportation
went to bat for the carriers" he said.
He added that according to
published statement by Mr.. Biddle
last January, indictments, charging
rate-fixing by motor and rail car
rlers, which were scheduled to be
handed up, were postponed at the
request of the War and Navy De-
partments and the ODT because
they would "injure the efforts of
the transportation system during
the war"
Quotes Justice Memorandum.
He then quoted the Arnold staff
memorandum as saying:
I'm the midst of the war emer-
gency the vested interests in vari-
Gus fields of transportation policy
are making their plans for revolu-
ttonary changes in the national
transportation policy plans which
envisage the immediate enactment
of enabling legislation to start the
country on the road toward a lin
tied number of integrated trans
portation systems under railroad
domination"
Mr.. Whitney testified also that
the Office of Price Administration
had evidenced mo intention of con-
trolling prices or stopping infla-
ton"
1T has given the American con-
sumer imitation control-and there
is an immence difference between
initiation control and price control"
Mr.. Whitney said
Workers Dollar Deprecated.
He said the technique of the OPA
lad been to depreciate the workers
collar, penny by penny. rather
than to stabilize its value
His testimony concerning the
Justice Department investigation
was included in the record after the
hearing board had overruled the
objections Of Jacob Aaronson, gen.
eral counsel for the railroads, on its
admissibility.
Earlier Mr. Whitney testified that
the ''stupendous inflow of earn
ings" of railroads during the past
eight months would never stand
the scrutiny of public opinion" and
called the attitude of carriers to-
ward their profits about as rea-
sonable as hungry alley cat with
q hunk of raw meat"
He asserted that Glass l railroads
cf the Nation in 1912 made an all
time high net operating income of
sl,480 940,760 after all taxes had
been deducted, and that Commerce
Department reports indicate the
roads were increasing their dividend
disbursements by about As per cent
this year He added that 35 of the
Glass l railroads reduced their in
debtedness in 1912 by only the in
f1nitesimal amount of 3.6 per cent"
These facts constitute strong
case of circumstantial evidence that
the railroad industry has no fixed
intention of applying its war gains
to the security and improvement of
rail transportation service after the
war" he said
Mr.. Whitney's organization, which
claims membership of $4,000, is
the largest of the five brotherhoods
seeking the wage increase.