Storm Warnings for Those Who Would Proceed

The present or prospective shipper, investor, owner, operator, or laborer in the transportation field in the next few years must be a watchman in the night of one big, overriding factor—competition in its most emulous form. Competition between and among most transporters is now regulated by a beneficent government which, by policy, is also commanded to foster and preserve all forms of transportation. But there are not enough passengers or freight to keep all forms going at a healthy fiscal rate nor at anywhere near their hauling potentials. Accordingly, they are now starting to compete ruthlessly as never before, and the government, through the administration in power, is harking back to the theory of Adam Smith—that the supply will equal the demand, given freedom from controls; hence, that controls should be done away with. The public may realize short-term benefits and yet be victimized in the end. Government take-over of transportation in some utopian manner such as was advocated by Edward Bellamy in 1887 in Looking Backward may now become the forward look. The question is what can be done about it.