Milford chronicle., 1947-02-07
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1947

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY Z, 1947
IF WE ARE TO HAVE broad inter-
changeable transportation service, the door
of opportunity may not be closed against
any.
At the present time that door is far from
open. Due to legislative and regulatory re-
straints, each form of transportation is rig
idly confined to it's own field. A railroad as
an example, may not operate transportation
service by air--nOr may an airline operate
service run on rails. AS result of this, the
carriers cannot create and operate truly CO.
ordinated transportation systenl-and the
public is prevented from receiving the many
benefits such system would provide.
To urge transport coordination is not to
urge the legaization of possible monopoly
that would dominate this all-important field
The Interstate Commerce Commission, or
any other regulatory authority given the
power by Congress, could prevent that. The
surest way to prevent monopoly is to main
tain and if possible to increase competition
and that would inevitably happen if all
types of carriers were permitted to broaden
their service, reach out into other fields, and
compete for public favor and patronage.
Congress should consider a long-range
program to make transport coordination pos
sible and effective. 1t must be program
geared to the needs of the complex economic
era in which we are living 1t must be pro-
gram that will assure shippers and travellers
the brOadest, swiftest and most economical
character of service that can be devised.
THE PLAN OF THE consumer co-ops,
according to the National Cooperative Con-
gress, is to double their membership within
the next two years.
The coop, like the tax-exempt govern
'ment power plant, seeks to compete with tax
paying business by virtue of special privi-
leges. This is strange premise on which to
build permanent organization If all busi
ness asked the same advantages, government
would be destitute of revenue.
Although the consumer co-Ops in this
country are now doing less than one percent
of the total retail volume of trade, their OBJ
jective is to boost this to some ten to fifteen
percent Such a development, they believe,
would give them an opportunity in which to
profit motive and competition would play no
part.
Think what beautiful world this would
be without profit and without competition
stagnation would follow. Without competi-
tion the produce of the farm would not be
provided for the American dinner table i'm
the volume and variety now enjoyed. Chain
sale have forced even the nOn-proft, non
competitive coop stores to adopt modern
methods of serving customers. Without
this competition the customers of the co-ops
would have sorry choice of articles, for the
management of nOn-profit co-Ops does not
have to be on par with competitive busi-
ness.
In preserving the profit system on which
progress in this nation was built, it is we'll
to call attention to the fact that even COOP
erative, non-profit stores depend on someone
earning profit in order that they make
sales
BY THIS TIME, most of our New Years
resolutions have been broken and forgotten
in the traditional manner. But there is one
resolution that should be constantly reaffrm-
ed, and that is to do something positive about
our monstrous fire loss, which reached record
totals in destruction of life and property last
year.
There can be no evading of the fact that
most fires are the result of human careless
ness alone-the statistics prove that. In or
der, the four primary causes of fire are
matches and smoking materials, defective
electric wiring and appliances, defective
heating and cooking stoves, and carelessness
with open lights and infammable liquids
Every one OF those causes comes straight
back to the careless, ignorant and inatten-
tive individual
In the larger field of community fire pre-
'vention, it is clear that we have Jagged woe
fully behind the march of progress in franz
ing and revising building Codes The recent
hotel fires offer CHASTITY proof of that Many
communities permit the term "freproof' to
be applied to public buildings which are def
nltely fire traps. And, apparently, few COM
munities insist that areaways and elevator
shafts, along which fire can travel with the
fury of typhoon, be closed by approved
types OF fire doors. That failure alone caused
many deaths in 1916
;, The coming year will tell the story. Will
1t be another chronicle of widespread death
and destruction, as in 1916, or will it be a
tale OF achievement in fighting one of man.
kinds most persistent enemies?