Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 3, August 24, 1946 Page: 14
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"Hold That Rate Line"
The Sam Houston room of Houston's
Rice Hotel is air-conditioned, frostily so,
but its murals hark back to a day when
life in Texas was un-air-conditioned and
quite a bit simpler.
Doubtless some of the 45 witnesses,
various I.C.C. aides, a member of the
I.C.C., and sundry lawyers wished last
week as they haunted the Sam Houston
room that they could return to that
day more than a hundred years ago
when man provided his own needs and
his own transport.
For these men were deeply embroiled
in 1946-model figures and controversy.
They were participating in an Interstate
Commerce Commission hearing which
will help determine whether the nation's
railroads will be granted a 25 per cent
increase in all Class 1 freight (which
covers a multitude of commodities).
Ruling Long Way Off
Presiding at the Houston hearing was
Dr. W. M. W. Splawn of the I.C.C.,
widely known over the state as former
president of the University of Texas
and former member of the railroad com-
mission.
An I.C.C. hearing is formal and a
little forbidding, like a session of court.
There is an exception, though. In a
courtroom those present know that soon
something is going to happen, soon a
decision must be made. There was none
of this suspense at the I.C.C. hearing,
because out of it came no direct ruling.
It was one of four being held over the
nation. September 24 in Washington oral
arguments are supposed to begin. But
there was talk in Houston last week
that they, may be postponed until De-
cember. There was no exact idea when
the railroads might get a yes, no or
maybe answer on their appeal for the
25 per cent boost.
Plenty of Protests
The hearing was like a trial too in
that there was a lot of defense. Shipping
interests protested volubly for four
days. The protests went about as fol-
lows:
Gulf Coast cotton interests-the Hous-
ton cotton exchange and board of trade
and Galveston cotton exchange and
board of trade represented by H. B.
Cummins suggested a compromise on
the 25 per' cent figure, an increase of 16
per cent with a maximum increase of
10 cents per hundred pounds.
Manufacturers of building materials-
Twenty-seven manufacturers r e p r e -
sented by F. C. Hillyer of Jacksonville,
Fla., wanted no increase at all. They
talked of big rises in already-ballooned
home costs if the increase is granted.
Railroad commissions-Eight railroad
commissions or their equivalent werechampioned by J. C. Murray of Little
Rock, consultant for the Arkansas Pub-
lic Service Commission. He charged that
any straight i n c r e a s e would only
heighten the discrimination between
Southwestern and Eastern freight rates.
Interior cotton compresses were will-
ing to talk about an increase but feared.
the railroads would lose business to the
truck lines. Other interests rode this
argument hard.
Citrus, fresh fruit and vegetable men,
represented by Austin E. Anson, execu-
tive. manager of the Texas Citrus Grow-
ers and Shippers Association of Harlin-
gen, were opposed to any increase what-
soever, including the six per cent tem-
porary rate increase granted the rail-
roads July 1.
Rails Get Sympathy
All expressed sympathy with the rail-
roads, which in their petition claimed:
Wage increases will lift their expenses
this year by $715,725,000;
Operation and maintenance expenses
will go up $167,000,000 this year;
War traffic is over and the roads are
experiencing a decline in revenue.
At the hearing's end, nobody knew
much more than when it had started,
but out of the voluminous records will
come some information for the I.C.C.
to mull over when it readies its decision.FLEETMASTER BINTLIFF
He Got His Idea iReconverted Fleet
As a U. S. Army port commander at
Plymouth, England,and later at Cag-
iari, Sardinia, Houston's Chester Bint-
liff observed the great war job done by
the LCT's (Landing Craft, Tanks) and
the LSM's (Landing Ships, Medium)
and dreamed up a peacetime adaptation.
This month he and his brother, David,
inaugurated Gulf-Canal, a Gulf Coast
water carrier service which will utilize
converted LCT's carrying 50-ton trailers
to serve ports and points on the intra-
cqastal canal from Corpus Christi to
Mobile, Alabama, and from Corpus to
Brownsville. In the near future, they
hope to add to the service two 203-foot
LSM's.
Trailers Give Door-to-Door Service
Departing noticeably from past
freight-handling methods, the Brothers
Bintliff will use trailers, pulled by con-
verted army truck tractors, for door to
door pickup and delivery of cargo to
cut down damage resulting from many
handlings. Another innovation is their
ship-to-shore radiophone on all craft,
providing liaison between shipper and
cargo.
The Bintliffs say they expect to offer
shippers a 20 per cent reduction over
existing rail rates, and will give priority
to farmers and small shippers.
To barge-shippers they offer added
speed, as the LCT can travel eight knots
an hour. The Gulf-Canal craft can also
navigate hitherto unnavigable waters, as
the LCT displaces 550 tons and draws
only five feet of water, and the LSM
displaces 900 tons and draws 7/2 feet.
Loading Facilities Built
With loading and unloading facilities
already established at Biloxi, New Or-
leans and Corpus Christi and construc-
tion underway at eight other points
along their service rQutes, the Bintliffs
have made through joint rate arrange-
ments with a government barge line
from Chicago and to Newv Orleans and
Birmingham, and is arranging similar
through rates with a Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, to New Orleans barge
line. Under this setup, shippers along
the eastern inland waterways systems
can have fixed rates all the way.
Chester Bintliff, the company's presi-
dent, before the war was vice-president
of the Gulf Carloading Company, a sea-
train line serving the Atlantic Seaboard
and the Southwest. His brother is an
independent oil producer, banker and
financier.
OilOn to Broader Fields
After the Texas Independent Produc-
ers and Royalty Owners' Association had
done its share in getting oil out of
the control of OPA, leaders of the or-
n Europe ganization wondered where to go next.TEXAS WEEK
24 AUGUST 46
14
P1
ANN&-
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Texas Week, Inc. Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 3, August 24, 1946, periodical, August 24, 1946; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586553/m1/14/: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Private Collection of the Raymond B. Holbrook Family.