Emphatic Objections

A Chicagoan complained last week to onetime New York State Senator John A. Hastings, now lobbying in Washington for adoption of "postalized" railroad fares (TIME, Jan. 16), that a train fare of $1 from New York to Chicago would enable his mother-in-law to visit him more often. Virtually every railroad authority from the roads themselves to the Interstate Commerce Commission had equally emphatic objections. But because of the blare of publicity ICC felt obliged to recognize the proposal and, in a tone of we'll-look-into-it-if-you-insist, suggested to Senator Burton Wheeler that Congress order an ICC investigation of the idea.

Postalization would divide the nation into zones, make all fares equal in any zone regardless of distance traveled. Under the Hastings plan coach fare from New York to Chicago, both in the same zone, would be $1; from New York to San Francisco, traversing four zones, $4.

Last week the Association of American Railroads summarized the argument of railroaders who scoff at all suggestions that lower fares would increase traffic. Its big argument: in 1922 the railroads carried 537,332,000 passengers an average of 55 miles for an average of $1.88; in 1937 they carried 251,476,000 an average journey of 82 miles for an average of $1.59. Inference: despite more than a 40% fare reduction traffic dwindled more than 50%.

Typically ignored in this argument was the fact that there was a change in the times: motor cars as good as those today could not be bought in 1922; automobiles comparable to the $800 cars of 1939 cost $2,000 up; gasoline mileages were far smaller. Thus while the automobile industry by technological advancement, mass production and lower prices has vastly improved the U. S. standard of living in travel, the railroads have offered only a meager improvement by comparison.

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