RAILROADS: Three into One?

At a bull session recently three longtime friends and railroaders—Delaware, Lackawanna & Western President Perry M. Shoemaker, Erie President Paul W. Johnston, and Delaware & Hudson President William White—sat down to chew over some common problems. All three run middle-sized, prosperous Eastern roads, but all face one long-range problem: how to compete effectively against both their own industry's giants and the growing inroads made by trucks and airlines. Last week the bull session grew into something more solid. The roads were talking merger, as equal partners in a single big line that would become the eighth biggest in the U.S.,...