 A television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company. Maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch. And Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Mr. William Bradford Huey, editor of the American Mercury, and Mr. Henry Haslett, contributing editor of Newsweek Magazine. Our distinguished guest for this evening is Mr. Robert R. Young, chairman of the board of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Mr. Young, it's a great pleasure to have you on the Chronoscope program this evening. I don't suppose you want to get into all the complications and the strike on the Long Island, but our audience would be interested in whether you have any ideas and by which the disputes can be reduced in the future or a more amicable way can be developed of solving them. I deplore strikes and the inconvenience to the public they cause and I've always felt that management and labor both are at fault in not finding ways to better serve the public in emergencies of that kind. Well, I think you've developed some ideas of management-labor conferences. What does that come to? What are your ideas on that? I have felt that the railway executives ought to set up machinery locally and nationally to get together at least quarterly with the labor leaders to look ahead and plan long-range to eliminate feather-bedding and increase specifications of pay and to give labor more than it's getting and to get more from labor than it's giving. You mean they should have regular meetings whether or not they are complaints and grievances? They should meet at least quarterly at the top level and should take these negotiations away from lawyers and subordinates. Mr. Young, our audience of course knows you as a sort of the sex bad boy of the railroads or the gadfly that's always trying to get new things done. We particularly know you as for the man who got us the uninterrupted journey from New York to San Francisco. That is one of your innovations, isn't it? I helped put that over although it is not very effective today. I'm a little bit ashamed of it. But your principal interest as a railroad man is in obtaining innovation. Is it not progress? Yes, because only through progress and the ability to compete with the airways and highways can we keep up our net income. And what particular change are you most interested in at the moment, sir? At the moment I have my heart set on newer and better railway passenger equipment. What about this train X that you've been talking about? Well that's the apple of my eye at the moment and that's the train that embodies everything in it that the automobile has given the highway traveler over the last 30 or 40 years which the railroads have failed to give them. That is speed and comfort and safety, quiet, low to the ground and modern. What is the status of that? Has a model been built of it? Yes, the Chesapeake Nile started in five years ago designing this railway train which will be two and a half feet lower at the rail, three and a half feet lower at the roof and it will be quiet and safe and will travel 125 miles an hour if need be safer than present equipment goes 60. That 125 mile an hour speed, sir, how fast would that enable a train to make the transcontinental trip from New York to Los Angeles? I look forward to the day when that trip will be done in one business day and two nights so that you will not lose any more time away from your business than you do presently by airplane. And would that put the railroads in a competitive position with the airplanes on trips say between New York and Washington and New York and Boston? I would visualize a two and a half hour trip to Boston and a two and a half hour trip to Washington which in my opinion would take all the traffic away from the airplane. Well could the CNO put in this innovation alone or would it have to have the help of the other railroads? Unfortunately no single railroad can introduce an innovation of this kind because of its dependence on its connecting railways. Obviously you cannot hook a train that's one foot from the rails with one that's four feet three inches from the rails. So when this was brought in it would have to be brought in by full trains. It was a train that runs from New York to the Green Bar every night runs partly over the Pennsylvania and partly over the CNO and the Pennsylvania didn't cooperate with the CNO I couldn't run it. This applies to passenger cars and freight cars both? Well first to passenger cars and the same lightweight equipment can be adapted later to high grade merchandise. Now Mr. Young you are also chairman of the Federation for Railway Progress I believe. Yes sir. Now what is that organization? What's the purpose of it? It's an organization made up of all segments of the railroad industries the stockholders, the suppliers, the shippers, labor, management and the public and its object is to bring progress to the railways and earnings to the railways. Well now in general. And good jobs to labor. In general does railway management welcome these progressive ideas of yours or do you have a lot of opposition in the industry? Unfortunately I have had a good bit of opposition most of which is stemmed from a certain group here in the east who are extremely influential in the railroads and who did not like for example the competitive bidding innovation that I introduced into the sale of railway securities. That cost them a lot of money and they've been opposing me ever since. Well how much real initiative do the railway executives have left now? The ICC fixes their freight rates, the unions pretty much and the railway mediation boards and so on fix railway wages. How much actual initiative do the railway executives have today? Well they have almost as much as the executives of any other industry. General Motors or Chrysler or DuPont for example. Today under price controls they face the same kind of price regulation that the railroads face. We all face this labor monopoly which is doing labor more harm than it is business. Our audience I think our viewers know or are familiar with the term feather betting Mr. Young. Just what is feather betting? Feather betting is the device which the unions have imposed upon many industries to waste labor and waste money. And what is the extent of the waste? I would say that in the railroad industry that feather betting were eliminated we could take 30% out of the operating cost of the railroads and put it into vacations with pay for the labor and everybody would be better off. Well on this point sir I imagine that among our viewers most of us whenever we were 9 or 10 years old dreamed of being railroad engineers now is railroading still something that is attractive to young Americans? Not as attractive as it should be and could be because they have learned that the opportunity for promotion in the railroads is not as great as it is in other industries. Well does management have somewhat of the same kind of seniority rules that railway labor has? Unfortunately they do and that is due primarily to the lack of let us say ownership management in the railroads. I would say there is less real ownership management in the railroads than there is in any other great American industry. Well we just had a stretch of about 21 months of government operation of the railways rather government ownership or some fiction of government ownership. Did that do any good in your opinion? It did this good. It enabled the railroads to keep on serving the public while the strike was negotiated if we had the same kind of a law on the books for the steel industry that we have for the railroads is the steel mills would be operating now. Mr. Young in spite of the fact that business is supposed to be good and a great deal of money is supposed to be floating around I believe that the two great railroad systems of the country the Pennsylvania and the New York Central are losing money. Now why are these great railroads losing money today? A combination of circumstances partly responsibility of management partly the responsibility of government they're losing money because rates have not kept pace with the advance in cost railroad cost. The Central and the Pennsylvania have suffered more than most railroads because they carry the great passenger express mail burden for the whole nation and that is the fundamental reason that they are losing money today when other railroads are prosperous and it's a very bad situation one that has resulted in their having hundreds of millions of dollars worth of under maintenance here six years after the last war they're not ready for any future war and it's a very serious situation which should be corrected and it's ridiculous to be building up our defense overseas with the New York Central and Pennsylvania running down. Those two great railroads of course vital to us in this dangerous world in which they go through the heart of our industrial area they carry probably 50% of all railway passenger traffic and 30% of all railway freight and if those two railroads got into trouble we could not take care of our armed forces in any part of the world. Well Mr. Young I'm sure that our viewers very much appreciate these forthright views of yours and thank you for being with us sir. The editorial board for this edition of the Lone Jean Chronoscope was Mr. William Bradford Huey and Mr. Henry Haslett. Our distinguished guest was Mr. Robert R. Young chairman of the board of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company. It seems like a nice idea. On the wedding day the bride and groom give watches to each other. Now if you're planning a wedding you may be glad to know that recognizing the social acceptance of this custom Lone Jean has produced an exciting series of duets. Exquisite Lone Jean watches in matching styles. 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We invite you to join us every Monday Wednesday and Friday evening at this same time for the Lone Jean Chronoscope a television journal of the important issues of the hour broadcast on behalf of Lone Jean the world's most honored watch and Wittner distinguished companion to the world honored Lone Jean. This is Frank Knight reminding you that Lone Jean and Wittner watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than four thousand leading jeweler who proudly display this emblem agency for Lone Jean Wittner watches. Cune in the conventions on the CBS television network.