THESE DAYS By George E. Sokolsky April 16,1946 100 Years of Service. The annual report of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the story of one century of the Pennsy lines, the recently issued, calls attention to the healthy maturi- answer is that whatever the method, whatever the ty of our country. This road is now celebrating its relations between railroad and ICC, the people of hundredth anniversary. But as I read the letter- the United States got the best railroad system in press, looked at the maps, charts and other ballyhoo, the world. I could only think of one fact: Namely, no Govern Two forces have, however, opposed the railroads: ment every built, ever added to, ever strengthened, one, the wholesome, beneficial competition from new ever improved this largest of American railroads. No and different means of transportation; two, the Government, Federal, State or municipal, ever did crackpot fascistic element in the American anything for the line, but all took taxes out of its bureaucracy that always seeks to destroy by Gov- ernment regulation and control what better and more prosperity. able men built as private enterprise. It was created by private persons as s private The first factor, private automobiles, bus lines, business venture. It has so remained except when, airplanes and whatever new means of transportation almost disastrously, the Government took it over appear, is the normal concomitant of a free system. These afford all the stimulus and incentive of compe- during world war I. It is a private property today. tition. The railroads are too hamstrung by Govern- And no government-owned railroad in the world ment control to meet that competition efficiently and equals it in size, service or usefulness. What is true in the best tradition of American initiative. They of the Pennsylvania is, in large measure, true of have to be bound by too many rules, regulations, de every American railroad crees, consents. And while admitting freely that the The strength of the United States during this war ICC is the most competent and honestly administered lay not in Government regulation or control, nor in bureau, the psychological effect of red tape upon the the piling of bureau upon bureau, nor in the expand- human mind is to inhibit broad and riskful innova- ing of the personnel of departments. It lay in the tion. Less control and more competition would im- railroads, the steel plants, the automobile factories, prove most of our railroads. the little factories owned by families, the big enter- The socialistic tendencies of a fascistic-minded prises owned by myriads of stockholders. No gov- bureaucracy, however, find even the ICC inadequate. ernment-owned enterprises anywhere in the world What these officeholders seek really is Government showed the ability or the capacity to produce in ownership whether overt or disguised. They would equal quantity or with equal efficiency. The war have Government ownership of everything, although was a test and private enterprise in the United in the United States, they dare not use the term, so States met the test. they permit themselves the euphemism of "plan- The railroads of this country are controlled by a ning." Of them, Ludwig von Mises said: Government agency, the Interstate Commerce Com- The only alternative to the determination of mission, whose function it is to co-ordinate the poli- market prices by the choices of all consumers is the cies and practices of a private enterprise in trans- determination of values by the judgment of some portation with the public interest. The Interstate small groups of men, no less liable to error and frus- Commerce Commission was originally created to tration than the majority, notwithstanding the fact maintain the capitalist-that is, the competitive- that they are called 'authority.''' system in railroading. It was to keep the railroads When one looks at the Pennsylvania) Railroad on in actual competition in a field that, by its very na- its hundredth anniversary and, let us say, the OPA ture, is a natural monopoly. As it is a government of the moment, one cannot have as much respect for bureau the ICC could not fail to expand its pur- the wonders of "authority" as for the competence poses and activities over the years. As one looks at of private enterprise.