Railroad Freight Rates

Archive Report

Public Reaction to Proposed Increase in Rates

Faced with steadily declining revenues, the railroads of the United States joined in a petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission, June 17, 1931, to authorize a general increase of 15 per cent in all railroad freight rates. They estimated that such an increase, if granted, would provide them with approximately $400,000,000 of additional revenue annually. The existence of an “emergency threatening serious impairment of their financial resources and their capacity to assure the public a continuance of efficient and adequate service” was put forward by the carriers as ground for early and favorable action upon their application by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Public hearings on the application are to begin July 15. A final decision by the Commission ...

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