REGULATING RAILROADS: The ICC Is Not Up to the Job

OF all the slow-moving, detail-bound agencies in Washington's bureaucracy, the champion is probably the Interstate Commerce Commission, oldest of the Government's nine independent regulatory bodies. And yet its job is one of the most important. It rules over the destinies of 450 railroads, 20,000 truck lines. 300 freight haulers on inland and coastal waterways, pipelines, terminal companies, etc. Currently, the ICC is in the middle of the fight for the New York Central and has petitions from both sides charging skulduggery. Nobody would be more surprised than the petitioners if the ICC...