HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE. SEVENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H. R. 2531 A BILL TO REDISTRIBUTE THE FUNCTIONS OF THE INTER- AND H. R. 4862 A BILL TO AMEND THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT, AS VOLUME 2 MARCH 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, AND 30, 1939 Printed for the use of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce CONTENTS Bayless, Herman A., Mississippi River System Carriers' Association-- Bell, Marcus L., Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway. 1384 Benton, John E., National Association of Railroad Presidents and Hadlick, Paul E., Federal Transportation Association Ross, John H., Inland Water Petroleum Carriers' Association..... TO REDISTRIBUTE THE FUNCTIONS OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1939 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m. in the hearing room, New House Office Building, Hon. Clarence F. Lea (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please be in order. We have with us Mr. Childe this morning, and we will be very glad to hear from him. STATEMENT OF C. E. CHILDE, OMAHA, NEBR. Mr. CHILDE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, my name is C. E. Childe. I live at Omaha, Nebr., and by profession I am a transportation counsel. I appear here as chairman of the traffic committee of the Mississippi Valley Association. The Mississippi Valley Association is a nonprofit corporation. Its membership is comprised of shippers and other citizens of 22 States in the Mississippi River Basin, extending from Pennsylvania on the east as far as Montana and the Rocky Mountain States on the west. It takes in the whole area between the Alleghenies and the Rockies and between Canada and the Gulf. The object of the Mississippi Valley Association is to promote the commerce of the interior of the United States. This interior area, as you gentlemen know, is rich in raw materials. It produces most of the agricultural, mineral, and forest products of the United States, and these natural resources are largely undeveloped. Our citizens are not lacking the intelligence or in energy or ambition to develop this area, but we have not sufficient population to do it. We are sadly lacking not only in manpower but in manufacturing industries to utilize the raw materials which we produce, or which we have available for production, and by so doing to add to employment and create new wealth and to raise our standard of living, which are the objectives of our association. ADEQUATE TRANSPORTATION THE MOST NEEDED THING The one thing which this interior of the United States needs above all else, as we see it, is adeqaute low-cost transportation, and I wish to put emphasis on the words "low cost." Our transportation costs in the interior are so much higher than in the coastal and Great Lakes areas that we have been unable to attract 15 |