RAILROADS: Ninth Raise

The Interstate Commerce Commission last week gave U.S. railroads a freight-rate increase—for most of them, the ninth such raise since the end of World War II. Eastern roads got permission to raise their rates 9%; lines in other regions got 6%. Railroad men estimate that the boost will bring in $564 million more a year in revenue. The railroads had asked for a 15% increase, were opposed by the Office of Price Stabilization, which argued that any increase would be passed on to consumers. But ICC decided the railroads needed the money "to meet the needs of national defense." Now one of the railroads' big worries is whether the new hike will shift more freight to the growing trucking industry.