CHAPTER VIII 

 THE TRANSPORTATION EMBARGO 



England and France discovered, when the war 

 broke out, that they could not trust their transpor- 

 tation systems in private hands when the Hfe of the 

 nation was in the balance, and both countries im- 

 mediately took over the operation of the railroads. 

 There was no hesitation, no delay, no two minds 

 about it. After generations of fervid insistence that 

 the railroads must be left in private hands, even 

 those who had been loudest in protest declared that 

 they must be run by the state. 



We can no more have a properly functioning so- 

 cial organism, with its transportation agencies in 

 private, profit-making hands, quarrelling all the 

 time with the public, with Congress, with the courts, 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission, forty odd 

 State railroad commissions, with cities, chambers 

 of commerce, farmers, shippers, and consumers all 

 over the countiy, than we can have a properly 

 functioning human being with his circulatoiy sys- 

 tem in outside hands. And we cannot assure ade- 

 quate protection to the farmer or the consumer, we 

 cannot secure fair prices until the whole business of 



transportation, warehousing, and storage becomes a 



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