May-June 1962 - Milwaukee Road Archive

President Quinn Comments On:
Railroading In the Space Age
WITH regard to the place of surface
transportation in the space age, President
William J. Quinn told members of the
American Railway Development Association
in Minneapolis May 14 that the
railroads are not waiting for business to
come their way, but are devising methods
to meet the new needs with much
the same creativity and imagination that
characterizes the space program itself.
He cited the Milwaukee Road's integrated
rail-truck service to missile base
projects as an· illustration, and called attention
to piggyback, Flexi-Van, tri-Ievel
automobile carrying cars and other new
types of rail equipment as being indicative
of significant changes in the "physi­
qualifying conditions stipulated by the
Milwaukee included the state commissions
or Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin,
Michigan and Iowa. Department of
Justice witnesses also testified to the
harmful effects of unconditioned merger,
stating that they favored greater, rather
than less, competition between the applicant
lines and other railroads in the
area involved,
A proposal made by Oregon Public
Utility Commissioner Jonel C. Hill at
the session in Portland Mar. 22 was reopened
at the Chicago hearing. The
plan is keyed to withholding the Spokane,
Portland & Seattle Railroad from
the merger and allowing the Milwaukee
Road to acquire ownership. It would
also provide the Milwaukee Road with
trackage rights over the Oregon Electric
Co. lines to Eugene.
In connection with the proposal, R.
K. Merrill, commerce counsel for the
Milwaukee Road, stated at the Chicago
hearing that the Milwaukee had not contemplated
the move, but if the state and
the Interstate Commerce Commission
feel it in the public interest that a study
should be made to determine its feasibility,
the Milwaukee would cooperate in
such a study.
Testimony on the merger application
is winding up in June with hearings in
Fargo and Bismarck, N. D., Missoula,
Helena, Great FaUs, and Billings, Mont.,
Aberdeen, S. D., and in Minneapolis
starting June 27. Before it is concluded
some 600 witnesses will have testified.
May-June, 7962
cal forms of transportation."
In addressing the 53rd annual dinner
meeting of the railway development
group, Mr. Quinn said that the public
looks to the nation's industry, including
the railroads, to maintain America's
ability to compete in the world of space
-to surpass Russia. "Big business must
understand the national purpose", he
said, "and business leaders must prepare
to meet the challenge."
Mr. Quinn observed that perhaps
what is needed is a rediscovery of the old
truth that "productivity" is not a physical,
but an economic term. With relation
to the transportation industry, he said,
"What determines productivity for the
railroads is not how many carloads we
handle, but how much economic value to
the shipper our enterprise provides-and
important among our shippers are those
currently contributing to the space age
program."
Mr. Quinn pointed out that today, in
the space age, the railroads are still the
"work horse" of transportation. "Space
capsules, missiles, the thousands of
pieces of equipment designed to project
them through space, the delivery of material
for the construction of launching
President William J. Quinn (center) inspecting
samples of newly developed
wheat products with L. B. Horton, commissioner
of agricultural and mineral
development (right), and D. G. Fletcher,
executive vice president of the Crop
Quality Council, Minneapolis. Mr. Horton,
president of the American Railway Development
Association, presided at the
53rd annual dinner.
sites-all are dependent on the reliable,
low-cost services of the railroads."
Remarking that changes which used to
take generations now occur in a few
years-even overnight, he said, "We
should bear in mind that the space age
is not an isolated phenomenon, but the
logical outgrowth of our having successfully
joined scientific, mechanical and in­
'dustrial progress to create a productive
complex such as the world hardly
dreamed of a generation ago."
(Continued on page 12)
Milwaukee Road personnel who attended the dinner meeting at which President
William J. Quinn (seated, center) was the principal speaker. Seated, from left: G. A.
Dyke, agricultural agent, Spokane; E. J. Stoll, director-real estate and industrial
development; L. B. Horton, commissioner of agricultural and mineral development;
and F. J. Kuklinski, superintendent, Twin City Terminals. Standing, from left: J. F.
Grier, western director-industrial and real estate development, Seattle; A. G. Claflin,
agricultural agent, Aberdeen, S. D.; T. A. Hunt, industrial engineer, and J. V. Kelly,
geologist, both of Chicago; S. P. Elms(ie, general agent, and M. M. Wolverton, assistant
traffic manager, both of Minneapolis; P. Braun, general agent, St. Paul; D..W.
Spencer, grain marketing representative, Minneapolis; G. Orrben, tNminal manager,
Milwaukee Motor Transportation Company, Twin Cities; and S. J. Oberhauser,
agricultural agent, Minneapolis.
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