Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-05-24
First MEETING
Of Conferees
Slated Monday

Enactment on a standby basis
of legislation to create a Public
Transit Authority was under
consideration today on Capitol
Hill as a possible solution of
Washington's transit crisis.
4 The standby authority legis-
lation would be coupled with
renewal of the dying franchise
of the Capital Transit Co. and
would go into effect only If the
company failed to buy out Louis
E. Wolfson, its controlling stock
holder.
The proposal to buy out Mr..
Wolfson was made last week by
Daniel w. Bell. president of the
American Security & Trust Co.
Bell Explains Plan
Mr.. Bell yesterday explained
his plan to all five members OF
the team set up by the Senate
to settle differences between bills
passed by the Senate and by the
House.
The Senate bill would create
publicly owned Washington
Metropolitan Transit Authority
to take over mass transportation
here when Capital Transit'S
franchise dies by act of Congress
next August a. 1t would oper-
ate on an interim basis for three
years under direction of the Dis
trict Commissioners. who would
attempt to sell the system to a
new private owner.
The House bill, drafted as a
result of negotiation with the
Capital Transit management.
would restore the franchise with
tax and other concessions.
Conference Set
The first conference between
lawmakers from the House and
Senate has been scheduled tenta-
lively for 2::30 pm. Monday. Pre-
pairing for this session, the Sen-
ate conference team slated a
caucus today.
Possible compromise Of the
two dramatically opposed hills
was Endorsed by Representative
Harris. Democrat of Arkansas,
chairman of the Transportation
Subcommittee of the House Com
merce Committee which drafted
the CTC restoration bill.
He said he had a great deal
of confidence" in Mr.. Bell and
hoped his plan to have etc buy
out MI Wolfson and retire his
stock would succeed Mr.. Harris
said he was open minded on
some alternatives if it tthe Bell
PLAN shouldn't work out"
Meet Major Tests
He said the Bell proposal would
meet two major tests. One. he
said, is that everybody says they
want private ownership" of the
transit system and the other is
that 1T appears that practically
everyone does not want Mr..
Wolfson to operate a transit
system for Washington"
Mr.. Harris said, IF that's a
TACT. the committee has brought
forth a proposal by reputa bic.
private citizens of the District
who want to operate the transit
system"
Mr.. Harris said the conferees
ought to be able to work out a
solution TO the satisfaction of
proponents of the interim
authority He asked, other
wise. why do they make it an
interim authority" The pos
slbllity of enacting transit au-
thority legislation on a stand
by basis recalled objections to
the Senate's bill by the House
interstate and Foreign Com
merce Committee. Nearly two
dozen amendments were pro-
posed and it was expected that
II conferees should decide on the
necessity of an authority. the
House members-all from the
commerce Committee-presum-
ably would insist upon a major
rewrite of the authority bill.
Some Wholly Against
Mr.. Harris pointed out that
most members of the committee
had said they would accept an
authority only as "a last resort
Some. he said. would not con-
slder public ownership even then.
He said a number of COM
mlttee members had favored set
ting up the authority as a
Federal agency with the directors
appointed by the President and
confirmed by the Senate. The
Senate-approved bill would let
the District Commissioners ap-
point the directors of the au-
thority and would make it a Dis
trlct agency rather than a Fed