The railways present one of our immediate and pressing problems. They are
and must remain the backbone of our transportation system. Their prosperity
is interrelated with the prosperity of all industries. Their fundamental
service in transportation, the volume of their employment, their buying
power for supplies from other industries, the enormous investment in their
securities, particularly their bonds, by insurance companies, savings
banks, benevolent and other trusts, all reflect their partnership in the
whole economic fabric. Through these institutions the railway bonds are in
a large sense the investment of every family. The well-maintained and
successful operation and the stability of railway finances are of primary
importance to economic recovery. They should have more effective
opportunity to reduce operating costs by proper consolidation. As their
rates must be regulated in public interest, so also approximate regulation
should be applied to competing services by some authority. The methods of
their regulation should be revised. The Interstate Commerce Commission has
made important and far-reaching recommendations upon the whole subject,
which I commend to the early consideration of the Congress.