The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-11-04
The Business Busters

In discussing some Recent Developments
in Transportation, R. " Fletcher, vice-presi-
dent of the Association of American Railroads,
presented information to the Traffic Club of
New York and the Atlantic States Shippers
Advisory Board on October which is of the
utmost importance to the nation.
Mr.. Fletcher said that credit for the I'M
precedented war service of the American rail-
roads does not belong alone to the railroads,
but ito all those who participated in the move
ments Of goods, either as owner or as car
rier Particularly should emphasis be placed
on the fact that those factors, acting sep
arately, could not have accomplished the
task"
The railroad industry is studying problems
facing the postwar world with the fixed de-
termination to give, after the war, the best
railroad service which the country has ever
known There is a. spirit stirring in the rail-
road realna-a spirit of enterprise, energy, in
quiry expectation, ambition and hope
Mr.. Fletcher traced the origin Of public
regulation of railroads. He showed how leg
islation to protect the public and promote
sound competition, had to consider two classes
of business enterprises-namely, those which
were wholly private, and those which were
quasipublic Manufacturing, merchandising,
farming and retailing came in the first class
where the forces of competition were needed
to defeat extortion. The railroads came in
the second class as quasipublic agencies
ulation. Legislative bodies, recognizing these
distinctions, first brought into being state rail-
road commissions with certain regulatory au-
thority. Ultimately, in 1887, the Interstate
Commerce Commission created. Three
years later the Sherman Act was passed.
In order to provide uniform and equitable
rates for thousands of communities, the rail-
roads, for some fifty years past, have main
tanned rate bureaus based on the conference
idea of initiating rates. Under this method
proposed changes are openly and freely dis
cussed among the interested carriers and the
interested shippers" This method has long
been familiar to t h e Interstate Commerce
Commission, and has, in effect, been approved
by that BODY Now, like lightning striking
from clear sky come the theorists in the
Antitrust Division of the Department of JUS
tice, with suit against the railroads pro-
posing that each road 'fbe compelled to file
its own rates without consultation or confer
ence with other carriers, or with shippers
other than their own
Young lawyers from the Department of JUS
tice calmly demand that fifty years Of rate
making practices be thrown out the window
In effect, they charge that the various state
public service commissions and the Interstate
Commerce Commission, which is h e most
highly respected administrative tribunal in the
world. have been in collision with the rail-
roads for half century to gyp the public
None seem to know exactly what they wish
to do with the railroads, other than create
publicity for themselves. The conceit of the
antitrust lawyers who would calmly disrupt
the complex freight structure Of the nation
involving millions of rates on every conceiv-
abb commodity moving between nearly TO-
900 railroad stations, is beyond understanding
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