Government operation does not afford the cure. It was government operation which brought to us the very order of things against which we now rebel, and we are still liquidating the costs of that supreme folly.
Surely the genius of the railway builders has not become extinct among the railway managers. New economies, new efficiencies in coöperation must be found. The fact that labor takes 50 to 60 per cent of total railway earnings makes limitations within which to effect economies very difficult but the demand is no less insistent on that account.
The President then urged merger of railroads, pooling of equipment and a central agency to aid in their financing and to suggest economies. This portion of his message was evidently inspired by the great labor strike during the summer of 1922, and the subsequent shortage of cars and inadequacy of transportation facilities. He argued that there “should be a guaranty against suspended operation. The public must be spared even the threat of discontinued service.” He then recommended an abolition of the Labor Board as not being “so constituted as best to serve the public interest.” This board is composed of three members selected by the railways and three by railway employees, and three by the Government. According to President Harding “it is inevitable that the partisan viewpoint is maintained throughout hearings and in decisions handed down. Only the public group of three is free to function in unbiased decisions.” He, therefore, suggested the abolishment of the partisan membership and that the work of the board be performed by or in very close contact with the Inter-State Commerce Commission which already has supreme authority in rate making to which “wage cost bears an indissoluble relationship.”
When a president of the United States takes up so much of his annual message with transportation and the relationship which the different forms bear to each other, when he argues for harmony between them and between them and their employees, there is certainly reason for study and legislation which will bring about just and adequate methods of administration, operation and regulation.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Agricultural Inquiry, Report of Joint Commission on, Part III deals with Transportation, Washington, D. C., 1922.
Alden, H. W., “Automotive Obligations Toward Highway Development,” Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Vol. VIII, pp. 161-162, 426-432.
Automotive Industries.—“Automobile Service Stations,” Vol. XLVII, pp. 174-175; “Automobiles in Postal Service,” 178-179; “Cost of Operation of Bus Lines,” 482-483; “Motor Trucks on the Farm,” 315; “Railroad Officials Recognize Truck as Transportation Ally,” Vol. XLIII, 1201-1203.
Baker, C. W., “Relative Economy of Truck and Railway,” Engineering News-Record, Vol. LXXXIII, pp. 52-67.
Bassett, W. R., “Avoiding Industrial Traffic,” Industrial Management, Vol. XLI, pp. 342-346.