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Show Tosjun i0Ltm k IN WASHINGTON JTyrfjjl Railroad Report DA. HULCY, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, In a recent address before the National Na-tional Transportation Forum in Washington, not only made an e cellent political speech from his viewpoint, but he indicated the railroads rail-roads of the country are threatened threat-ened with socialistic government control, that "some folks" would like nothing better than to see the government take over the railroads and other transport, that government govern-ment controls are strangling the industry, in-dustry, that "taxation is siphoning off the life-blood of our economy and diverting venture capital for ill-advised government adventure". Among other things, Hulcy said: "Our transportation industry has traditionally been free and traditionally tradi-tionally competitive. It is run by private citizens, financed by private pri-vate capital and primarily supported sup-ported by private industry. Competition Compe-tition has incubated the world's best transport services and government gov-ernment has entered the picture largely as an umpire or a referee." Let's see if that is true. From the start the railroads of this country spanning the continent conti-nent were seldom without government govern-ment subsidies either direct- or in- direct in land or money. So even from early days, the government, which is the taxpayers of the country, coun-try, has had a stake in the transportation trans-portation system. But to bring the matter down to recent years, records rec-ords of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation show that the railroads have come to that government corporation, cor-poration, when they could not get money from private financiers, and borrowed some $232,414,165. As of today $98,621,561! is still on the books of the RFC. That's taxpayers' money, not private capital. In addition, government, which is the taxpayers, Is the biggest customer of the transportation trans-portation system. For instance, over the years the government has paid to the railroads billions bil-lions of dollars to carry the mail mail subsidies it is called. The postoffice department depart-ment estimates the cost of carrying car-rying the mail on railroads alone this year will total $381,-000,000. $381,-000,000. In addition, more millions are being paid railroads for troop and armament transportation. During the war the railroads' bill to the government totaled some six billion bil-lion dollars, Air Transportation In another field of transportation air transportation, the govern ment also has a huge stake. The Post Office department estimates cost of carrying the mall on thi country's airlines this year at $142,' 000,000. In addition, there are som lines which get an outright subsidj from the government. On top ol this, there is a government cost for construction and maintenance of airports, beacons, radar anc other safety aids which totals more than $274,000,000 for the year. Shipping Industry In the shipping industry, anothei form of transportation, there is at annual subsidy for operations grant ed the industry totaling somethinj like $30,000,000, plus many million! in construction subsidies under the guise of defense construction, whicl likely runs as high as $50,000,00( annually. If taxation is siphoning off the life-blood of our economy as Hulcy says, perhaps the slashes should be made in the transporta tion industry first. Venture Capital Hulcy says this: "I make the challenge once again, on the basis of my talks with men and women on the Main Streets of America. What are we going to do for venture capital to launch new enterprises and to put the necessary yeast for expansion ex-pansion In the older enterprises?" enter-prises?" In case Hulcy is at a loss, figures from the Office of Defense Production Produc-tion and the Reconstruction Finance Fi-nance Corporation, show that as of this date business men have made application to these agencies to spend a total of more than $$11,000,-000,000 $$11,000,-000,000 for expansion of old plants and existing facilities and the construction con-struction of new plants, under the five-year rapid tax amortization clause in the Defense Production Act. And that's private capital, most of it, although the RFC has been making some loans for these purposes. RFC Report In this connection, the RFC has filed its year-end report showing that the net income of RFC for six months ending December 31, 1951 was $6,300,000, as against $4,-700,000 $4,-700,000 for the previous six months, a total of $11,000,000 for the year. And included in the return was $1,-400,000 $1,-400,000 representing net return from sale of securities of the Denver Den-ver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Rail-road and the Western Pacific Railroad. |