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HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON

INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEVENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H. R. 2531

A BILL TO REDISTRIBUTE THE FUNCTIONS OF THE INTER-
STATE COMMERCE COMMISSION WITH A VIEW TO MORE EFFI-
CIENT EXERCISE OF RATE-MAKING AUTHORITY: TO EXTEND
THE JURISDICTION OF THE COMMISSION IN RELATION TO
THE FIXING OF MINIMUM RATES, AND RATES FOR INLAND
WATER TRANSPORTATION: TO CREATE A RAILROAD REOR-
GANIZATION COURT; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

AND

H. R. 4862

A BILL TO AMEND THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT, AS
AMENDED, BY EXTENDING ITS APPLICATION TO ADDITIONAL
TYPES OF CARRIERS AND TRANSPORTATION, MODIFYING
CERTAIN PROVISIONS THEREOF, AND CREATING AND ESTAB-
LISHING A TRANSPORTATION BOARD TO ADMINISTER
CERTAIN PROVISIONS THEREOF; TO CREATE A REORGANIZA-
TION COURT, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

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

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CONTENTS

Bayless, Herman A., Mississippi River System Carriers' Association--

Bell, Marcus L., Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway.

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Benton, John E., National Association of Railroad Presidents and

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Ross, John H., Inland Water Petroleum Carriers' Association.....
Walter, Luthur M., Chicago Great Western Railroad -

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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

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