No major U.S. railroad has wheezed through more investigationsor heard more advicethan the bankrupt New York, New Haven & Hartford. Creditors have poked, probed and counseled; so have state commissions and committees of weary commuters, whose fares have gone up 108% since 1955. It was probably inevitable that the Kennedy Administration would step in: after all, the Government has guaranteed $35 million in loans to the New Haven.
To help the most troubled railroad in the East, the Commerce Department last week tapped one of the best railroaders in the West. It selected Frederic B. Whitman, 63, president of the...