Word: railroader
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Part of this is due to the outmoded law under which the ICC operates. One of its original purposes was to protect the public against monopolistic railroad practices. But cars, trucks and planes have brought keen competition to the transport industry, and so have drastically reduced the monopoly dangers and the reason for ICC. Instead of withering away, the ICC is now devoting much of its time to protecting the railroads from themselves. For example, 25% of the time at rate hearings is spent on the effect that an increase will have on the public, 75% on whether it will...
Knowing that the ICC always likes to grant less than asked for, the railroads habitually ask for more than they need. Six months ago, the railroads asked for a 45% increase for carrying first-class mail. But when Postmaster Arthur Summerfield start ed giving more business to planes and buses, the railroads backed down fast, were glad to take a 10% hike. Railroadmen feel that if they could set their own rates and shave them quickly to meet competition, the ICC could concentrate on preventing regional discrimination, stopping cutthroat competition and guarding against shenanigans in railroad management...
Wall Street v. New England. The battle was over control of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The man Buck Dumaine wanted to "give it to" was Patrick B. McGinnis, the Wall Street railroad juggler who recently collided with the ICC over his expense accounts while boss of the Norfolk Southern (TIME, Feb. 22). In 1948 McGinnis helped old Frederic Dumaine grab control of the New Haven, bought 75,000 shares of stock, largely for clients. But now McGinnis doesn't like the way Buck Dumaine runs the road, and is waging a proxy fight to take over...
...that the New Haven is in poor shape, has not made anywhere near the money it should. Though the road has reported a profit every year since 1949, McGinnis argues that the profits come from the road's real-estate holdings and that the New Haven, as a railroad, has actually lost more than $4,-000,000 under Dumaine management. He says that too much money has been spent on new equipment, dragging the road's operating capital down from $47 million to $11 million in 1953, and that only preferred stockholders have got dividends since the road...
Buck Dumaine insists that McGinnis is wrong when he says the New Haven runs at a loss. In a proxy statement fired off this week, he argued that every railroad counts nonrailroad revenues in its profits. The fact is that the road's total revenues have increased steadily in the last five years to $165 million in 1953. Net income was equal to $12.16 a preferred share, with $7 disbursed in preferred dividends. The New Haven's debt has been cut by more than $50 million through retiring securities and the purchase of bonds, thus cutting interest charges...