TRANSPORT: Coordinator

Drafted last week to a job for which he has long been pointed and is ably qualified to handle was expert, hard-working ICC Chairman Joseph B. Eastman. The job: director of newly created Office of Defense Transportation, over all rail, highway, airway, waterway (including coastal and intercoastal) and pipeline services. ODT is the greatest challenge to Eastman in his long career—that of wartime coordinator of all U.S. transportation. His task:

> Keep troops and war materials flowing across the land without delay, prevent congestion at seaports and strategic centers.

> Coordinate the transportation policies and activities of all Federal regulatory agencies.

> Direct civilian traffic movements, and if necessary curtail these by embargoes or priorities.

> Where necessary, pool equipment and facilities, discontinue overlapping services and routes, regulate the routing of traffic. > Obtain from OPM materials for new equipment and maintenance.

If ODT succeeds, the U.S. can avoid Government operation of the railroads (which cost the taxpayer $1,616,429,000 in the last war). And if ODT succeeds, it may outlive its emergency usefulness, to continue under another name the coordination of domestic transportation.