Railroad officials, lawyers and lobbyists jostled one another unceremoniously last week to crowd into the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee Room for the opening of a great investigation. Subject of the investigation: Railroad holding companies. Prime question: Who owns which railroads?
Last year the Interstate Commerce Commission loudly warned against these holding companies, insisted their undercover activities were already blurring the I. C. C.'s merger map (TIME. Dec. 16). Last week Interstate Commerce Commissioner Joseph Bartlett Eastman appeared as a witness before the House Committee to give specifications for starting the...