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Show Facts On the Hoover Report Transportation Services The following article is the sixth in a series telling of the findings of the Hoover Commission. Commis-sion. The Government's transportation transporta-tion system involves 227,000 miles of railways, 1,500,000 miles of highways for 40,000,000 motor vehicles, ve-hicles, 100,000 miles of domestic and 179,000 miles of international air routes, 6,000 airports, 27,000 miles of inland waterways, 5,000 ocean-going vessels, 142,000 miles of gas and oil pipelines. Aside from the agencies that regulate transportation rates and services there are about a dozen agencies scattered over a dozen different parts of the Government S ... which have to deal with these matters. mat-ters. Their overlap ahd waste add to the dangerously mounting cost of Government. You, as a taxpayer, tax-payer, pay your share. In the past 30 years the Federal Government has spent $30,000,-000,000 $30,000,-000,000 on its transportation services. ser-vices. This vast expenditure went subsidies for railway construction, loans to financially distressed railroads, rail-roads, advice on reorganization, dredging of rivers and harbors, canal construction; subsidies to, and actually operation of, much of the international merchant marine, mar-ine, and an enormous amount of aids to navigation. In addition it was invested in subsidies to airlines, air-lines, provision of airways, airfields air-fields and other aids; grants-in-aid for highway construction and research in all of the foregoing fields. Nowhere in the present setup of transportation management is any-,one any-,one empowered or obligated to examine ex-amine the transportation system as a unit, to study all phases of the nation's ever-increasing, constantly con-stantly changing transportation needs, and to determine whether the Government's $1,500,000,000 a year operating cost is being spent ! in the best public interest. The Department of Commerce was originally responsible for the Government's transportation system. sys-tem. But as new forms of transportation trans-portation develop, the Department's Depart-ment's job has been parceled out among a great many different a-gencies a-gencies most of which are concerned con-cerned with only a single phase or segment of the whole system. The result has been a lack of unified planning necessary to an efficient meeting of the nation's needs in peace and war. Some of the Government's executive execu-tive transportation services have been delegated to such independent regulatory agencies as the Interstate Inter-state Commerce and the U. S. Maritime commissions. The Hoover Hoov-er Commission held it "absurd" that a single agency should thus be called upon "to act as both: (1) umpire and (2) member or manager of the team." The recommendations of the Hoover Report already adopted mean eventual savings of $1,250,-000,000. $1,250,-000,000. Additional savings of between be-tween $3,000,000,000 and $5,000,-000,000 $5,000,-000,000 are possible if the remaining remain-ing recommendations are enacted into law. This could mean the elimination of the wasted one dollar in ten in Federal expenditures today. And, mind you, Federal taxes alone now total about $1,000 a year for the average American family. Whac can you personally do a-bout a-bout it? Support President Truman and Congress in their program to re- organize the Executive Branch so that waste will be eliminated and efficiency increased. Join the Citizens Committee for the Hoover Report and work for its objective "Better Government Govern-ment at a Better Price." |