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Show A REVOLUTION IN POLICY The Administration's railroad program lavs especial stress on lessening railroad operating costs by eliminating duplication of service, and consolidating lines serving more or less the same area. A step of this kind will doubtless do much. But alono- with it there must be a program to solve the greatest of all railroad problems inequitable competition from other forms of commercial commer-cial transport. There are three such forms of importance: First, the trucks, which, operating on the public highways and being comparatively free from regulation, have been able "on certain classes and hauls to cut the rates of the railroads, which . must pay heavy taxes, build and maintain their own rights of way, and are subjected to severe Federal regulation. Second, the busses, which have had similar effect'on the railroad rail-road passenger business, and for similar reasons. Third, the waterways, which are built and subsidized bv the government. Low rates are made possible by the fact that the user of the waterway pays but part and sometimes a small part of the cost of transporting his goods. .Any balance is passed on to the taxpayer in the form of deficit which is paid out of the public treasury. . There is, of course, more to the railroad problem than this but lew will deny that government-subsidized, half-regulated competition is gradually throttling the life of our greatest single industry. In the interest of the worker, the investor, the farmer and business m general, there must be a revolution in our transportation trans-portation policy. ' . |