Milford chronicle., 1957-01-25
A TASK OF TREMENDOUS SIZE

A TASK OF TREMENDOUS SIZE
AS everyone who follows the news knows,
the most crucial economic problem faced by
England and many Western European coun-
tries is the oil shortage caused by stoppage
of the flow through the Suez Canal and the
Iraq- Mediterranean pipeline. The fruits of
the shortage are found in strict gasoline
rationing, cold homes, and diminished in
dustriol production.
To help alleviate this dangerous situa-
ton, American oil companies and oil men
at the request of the United States govern
ment-have moved with all dispatch. The
industry is applying itself to the task with
determination and igor. 1t is task of tre-
mendous size.
What the task involves is rearrangement
of the world pattern of oil fiow And since
most of the additional oil going to Europe
from the Western Hemisphere must origi-
nate within this country, our own long es-
tablished oil flow patterns must be altered,
in some cases drastically. AS specific ex-
ample. one company has pipeline which was
built to carry refined oil products inland
from the Gulf Coast. Now the flow has been
reversed completely, and the pipeline is
bringing crude oil down the coast for ship
ment abroad
These and other such arrangements do
not complete the task Ocean transportation
of the oil to Europe must then be provided
and there are only so many tankers avail
able.
This is a big and costly job-and job
in which Western military security as well
as Western economic welfare is heavily in
volved America and the free world can
take pride in what our oil industry is doing
in time of grave crisis.
1%Su&%
( UNEQUAL COMPETITIVE CLIMATE
Some time ago Vice President Nixon ask
ed an Official of one of the leading railroad
labor brotherhoods to submit statement of
facts and figures on some of the railroad
industry's major problems. That has been
done, and the officials letter is published in
a late issue of the Locomotive Engineers
Journal.
A major problem, he points out, is ''the
very unequal competitive climate" The rail
roads must pay for everything they use
right-of-ways, tracks, terminals, equipment
and pay heavy taxes on it. By contrast,
he goes on, the federal government has spent
a billion dollars on our inland waterways.
1t subsidies the airlines And the railroads
other major competitor, the interstate large
highway freghter, "does not have to raise
one dollar in capital outlay to build it's right
of-Way'."
Then he provides an interesting example
In Washington, d. c., there is an interna-
tional airport, which cost the taxpayers $32
million. Last year the taxpayers spent about
$455, 900 to operate it. In Washington there
is also union station. 1t too cost about $32
milion-but all of it was private capital.
And the railroads, which built it, pay about
$675,000 a year in taxes along with 1884 900
a year in interest on the bonded indebted
ness.
No one is trying to get rid of airlines,
trucks or inland waterways. They are
permanent part of the American economic
scene. But justice to the nation at large
demands that the competitive climate be
made far more equal than it is now.
~~y~~~%
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
This is the bicentennial year of Alexand-
er Hamilton. The 200th anniversary of his
birth was celebrated in January.
Hamilton was an illegitimate child, born
in the West Indies. As young staff officer
of Washington'S Continental Army he dis
tinguished himself. He was the main con-
tributor to the Federalist Papers, which
have come down to us as one of the great
classics of political writing. His name has
often been shrouded in controversy, and his
contribution to the establishment of the Am
erican Republic has not always been Suffi-
ciently recognized.
Hamilton would have favored a monar-
chy, but his was the vision which grasped
the possibilities of the economic develop
ment of the American continent He was a
man of brilliance and clarity. 1t will reward
us not only to honor his memory, but also to
study his writings. They served as a major
inspiration to leading American historian,
the late Charles Beard. They can serve us
equally well.
Economically, Hamilton was more sound
then jefferson; politically, jefferson contri-
buted more But they were both among the
, most able of that brilliant group of men, the
founding fathers of the Republic. Two hun
dred years after his birth, the work of Ham,
ilton still lives. Ours is the duty and the
honor to keep it alive.