Re: (erielack) 1962 Eastern Airlines Subsidy Request

[Ken <lackawanna_@_iname.com>]

Which is worse?  Federal subsidies of airports/air traffic control and 
highways or local property taxation of railroad rights-of-way?


Ken B,

At 11:18 AM 5/21/02 -0400, Blue Moon Network Administrator wrote:


>What's this have to do with the EL? It's in the E-L Aug/Sep 1962 company
>magazine!
>
>Came across this while doing the issue with the guy who looks like Smiley,
>it's the lead item in the "T E-L L-A-GRAM" section on page 4:
>
>
>
>A SUBSIDY OF $23,869,051 has been requested by Eastern Air Lines from the
>Federal government to cover "indicated needs for the balance of the fiscal
>year." Eastern said its calculations showed that amount would be needed to
>produce "the 9 per cent return allowed by the Civil Aeronautics Board in other
>subsidy cases." (Erie-Lackawanna needed $26,488,759 just to break even last
>year but did not ask the taxpayers for a subsidy to make up its losses.
>Reason: no such subsidy provisions are made for railroads.)
>
>
>
>The more I find out about the governments' subsidizing of the railroads'
>competitors with railroad tax dollars while regulating the railroads to
>death, the more disgusted I become.
>
>Has anyone ever sued the federal government on behalf of railroad
>stockholders?
>
>If you look at what the feds did to the railroads from 1900 to 1983 it looks
>like a fairly (unfairly!) clear-cut case of confiscation of wealth. It
>obviously cast aside the "Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness" which was
>guaranteed by our forefathers when applied to railroad stockholders.
>
>Reading the company mags for the last 8 years of its life can be depressing
>when you see how unbelievably oppressive our goverments (Federal, State and
>Municipal) were to the railroads. Until a year or so ago I hadn't thought of
>pre-1970 government as being so much the bleeding heart liberal sort, but
>studying railroad regulation and taxation since then has really opened my
>eyes. I used to think of myself as far too biased to be objective in the
>railroads vs. government debate, but I realize now that what the government
>did to the railroads was far worse than I had ever imagined.
>
>The criminal inequities perpetrated upon the railroads by the goverment is
>just mind-boggling. We are left with but a shadow of that which we love
>because our "protectors" destroyed it with malice aforethought. We are a
>country of fools and deserve the cesspool in which we live today, for we
>built it ourselves.
>
>"I love my country, I'm terrified of my government."
>
>We'd have a high speed, double tracked EL from Hoboken to Chicago today if it
>weren't for them.
>
>Our goverments have harmed our country far worse than any terrorists ever
>could.
>
>Sorry for the rant,
>
>Henry
>
>J. Henry Priebe Jr.       Blue Moon President & Network Administrator
>root_@_bluemoon.net         www.bluemoon.net - Blue Moon Internet Corp
>V.90, X2 & K56flex        www.railfan.net  - The Railfan Network
>
>
>
>
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