Ludington & Northern Railway, Sumpter Valley Railway Company and Virginia Blue Ridge Railway. The Sub No. 1 proceeding represents the complaint by the Western carriers for upward adjustment of their portion of the divisions in transcontinental movements. Railroads Seek Intervention In Air Mail Proceeding In a petition filed with the Civil Aeronautics Board, 69 railroads which handle about 97 percent of railroad mail, have challenged the legality of the "experiment" being conducted in flying normal first class mail at less than air mail rates between New York and Chicago and Washington and Chicago. The principal legal points raised by the railroads are 1. The practice is being carried on in direct violation of congressional statute providing that the postage rate to be charged for all mailable matter being transported by air shall be six cents an ounce. 2. The C. A. B., while empowered to fix compensatory rates for air mail service, "has no authority to fix compensation for the nonobligatory transportation of mail on a space available basis," as is provided under the current experiment. The railroads pointed out that every air carrier certificated to carry mail is obligated to carry all mail tendered to it, and that the practice of carrying mail on airplanes only when space is available is not even contemplated by law. 3. Rates set for flying three-cent mail were arrived at without consideration of the elements required by statute to be weighed in establishing rates for mail transportation. The petition also stated that the railroads affected by the New YorkChicago-Washington mail diversion are losing an estimated $825,000 in mail revenues annually. In a series of orders in Docket 25566-Intrastate Rates of Bituminous Coal Within the State of Ohio, the Interstate Commerce Commission (1) has reopened the proceeding for further hearing for the purpose of determining whether the intrastate rates from origins in Ohio to Cleveland, Lorain, Avon Lake, Willoughby and intermediate points result in a thirteenth section violation. Government Reparations Cases The I. C. C. has been asked by the Attorney General on behalf of the Federal government to postpone until "as soon after January 15, 1955 as will be convenient for the Commission" arguments in seventeen cases in which the government is seeking reparation on wartime shipThe proceeding is docketed as No. 29572-United States v. Ahnapee and Western Railway Co., et al., and similar cases, and has been scheduled for argument on November 29. ments. I. C. C. PROCEDURE Passenger Tariff Regulations Division 2 of the I. C. C. has issued an order in The Matter of Regulations Governing The Posting of Passenger Tariffs at Stations by which it provided that current regulations are set forth in Supplement No. 6 to Tariff Circular No. 18-A, which regulations cancel and supersede (1) regulations heretofore adopted and promulgated by order dated October 12, 1915, and (2) Rule 108 of Tariff Circular No. 18-A. Revision of Form "A" Annual Report The I. C. C. has announced that after consideration of objections Division 1 has postponed indefinitely a proposed change in Schedule 562 -Compensation of Officers, Directors, Etc., in annual report form A to require Class I and Class II railroad companies to report the total expense allowance for each person named therein. LEGISLATION President Vetoes Finality of Contracts Bill President Eisenhower has vetoed S. 906, the bill to establish the finality of contracts between the Government and common interstate carriers. The bill as it passed both Houses of Congress provided that such contracts would not be subject to attack or reparation after 180 days from the date of acceptance. The press carried the statement of the President that the bill would relegate the Government "to a position inferior to that of the general shipping public," in seeking review of freight rate charges. The President is quoted in the statement accompanying the veto as saying "I see no reason why the Government should not be subject to the same limitations on retroactive review of its freight charges as the commercial shipper." Railroad Statistics The Monthly Comment on Transportation Statistics issued by the I. C. C.'s Bureau of Transport Economics and Statistics, on September 14, 1954 discloses the following: 1-National income (Billions of dollars) 2-Operating revenues per dollar of national income (cents) Source: National income data-Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Survey of Current Business, July 1954 National Income Number. Population data from the Bureau of Census, July 12, 1954, Series P25 No. 96. PERSONNEL Dennis Named Coordinator Defense Transportation Appointment of John P. Dennis, Traffic Manager of the Texas Company, to the position of Coordinator of Defense Transportation was announced by Defense Mobilizer Arthur S. Flemming. Mr. Dennis' duties will include the responsibility "for reviewing and further developing defense mobilization plans in the transport field so that when necessary there will be an orderly transition of the industry from peacetime to emergency operating conditions." Motor Transportation BY HARRY E. Boor, Editor Attorney, American Trucking Associations, Inc. Trucking Companies Form Trailer Pool The National Trailer Pool, Inc., expects to be in operation by November 1, 1954, as an interchange agency to effect economies by utilizing vehicles to the best advantage for the carriers. At the beginning, the firm is limited to around 12 mid-western trucking companies, but it is expected to expand to include many more firms located particularly in the mid-west. The 12 founder companies have assigned 2,000 trailers to the pool and have placed an order for 500 new trailers which will be added to the pool for use of the companies. The establishment of the pool and its eventual operation involved two contracts. Under the first contract, the participants must turn over all their over-the-road trailers to the pool, which will be appraised and the pool corporation will take up all chattel mortgages, bank loans or other equipment obligations outstanding against such vehicles. The corporation then expects to issue stock to the participants representing their equity in the vehicles over and above the obligations assumed by the corporation. Under a second contract, the member companies obtain trailers as they need them on a mileage or a per diem basis from the corporation. It is expected that the arrangement will be subject to a five-year minimum lease which will obligate the pool to supply trailers on demand when and where wanted and in the numbers ordered. The members do not contemplate any apparent operational changes at the beginning of the operation, and most of the individual companies' trailers will be based in their own terminal yards, but all of the trailers will be subject to call by the various pool members. It is also expected that the corporation will set up a maintenances and repair station at a later date. The corporation has elected Stanley L. Wasie as President of the National Trailer Pool, Inc.; Mr. Wasie is also President of Merchants Motor Freight, Inc., of St. Paul, Minnesota. ATA Intervenes in Frozen Foods Case The American Trucking Associations, Inc., has asked the United States District Court in Houston, Texas, for permission to intervene as a defendant with the Interstate Commerce Commission in proceedings involving a court review of the ICC determination of exempt agricultural commodities decision of 1951. Frozen Foods Express, Inc., of Dallas has challenged the I. C. C.'s decision in the so-called "Determination" case in which fresh and frozen meats and dressed poultry were held not to be included within the agricultural exemption. In that proceeding, the Commission held that slaughtered meat animals and fresh meats, dressed and cut up poultry, fresh or frozen, were not exempt under the Interstate Commerce Act. The Department of Agriculture has also filed an intervention plea challenging the validity of the I. C. C. ruling and claims that the I. C. C. ruled on "slaughtered meat" without even the benefit of a recommendation from an examiner. The Department of Justice was named a defendant in the proceeding, but confessed error and is on the side of Frozen Foods Express and the Agriculture Department. Lined up with the I. C. C. in this court battle are American Trucking Associations, Inc., and Irregular Route Common Carrier Conference of A. T. A. In another proceeding, in the same court, Frozen Foods Express challenges a recent Commission order in MC-1605 which prohibited the transportation of fresh and frozen meats and fresh and frozen poultry without certificates because such products are not within the agriculture exemption. The Commission pointed out that the facts in this case are very similar to those in the "Kroblin case" and has stated, “We have not acquiesced in the court's decision, and review thereof has been set." A. T. A. filed a motion for leave to intervene in the Houston Court cases and has taken the position that a carrier may not transport commodities except those which it has been authorized by the I. C. C. to transport and those which the Commission, in its report and order of April 13, 1954, in M. C. C.-968, has determined to be embraced within the partial exemption of Section 203(b)(6) of the Interstate Commerce Act. Two-Structure Truck Tax Proposals to be Considered A subcommittee of the United States Chamber of Commerce has taken under consideration a proposal to write into U. S. Chamber of Commerce Policy the position that highway user charges should be limited to state registration fees and fuel taxes. The subcommittee is to report on this and other proposed changes in the Chamber's highway and transportation policies prior to a meeting of the Transportation and Communications Committee meeting on December 9, 1954. At the December 9th meeting, the Committee is scheduled to draw up recommendations which will be put before the Chamber membership in the formulation of transportation policies of the national organization. Representatives of all forms of transportation and other industries are present at the sessions where policy proposals are drafted. The Ohio Trucking Association has also announced its proposal for a highway finance program in Ohio to replace the controversial axlemile tax on trucks. An 8 point legislative policy program for the trucking industry was outlined at a membership meeting of the Ohio Trucking Association. This plan calls for additional highway funds, if necessary, to be derived from fuel taxes. The trucking industry's legislative policy report also included proposals for provision for an independent, non |