To the editor:
All our lives we've been fed the lie that nationalization of any business is a power grab by the federal government; that regulations make businesses unprofitable; that laissez-faire capitalism is a net public good. Yet all available evidence says different, and sometimes privatization is actually necessary for the public's well-being.
In 1917, the U.S. took control of all privately run railroads, running them for the benefit of the war effort under a government agency called the Railroad Administration. After the war, railroad workers' unions supported continuing nationalization because the robber-barons who'd been their overlords under privatization forced them to work longer hours under more dangerous conditions than the fed had. Yet in 1920, they were returned with improvements to their previous owners.
This wasn't the only time in our history railroads were nationalized. In 1976, the Consolidated Rail Corp. was created under the Regional Rail Reorganization Act from several small bankrupt railroad companies. Both the 3R Act and the Railroad Administration were deemed Constitutional by the Supreme Court. Conrail ran perfectly well under government control until it was re-privatized in 1999 as two separate for-profit businesses -- CSX and -- you guessed it -- Norfolk Southern.
You may know Norfolk Southern as the railroad company that lobbied the Trump administration to abandon regulations Obama's administration had imposed which would've required airbrakes on all trains transporting hazardous materials such as C2H3Cl (or vinyl chloride.) It's also the railroad which derailed in Sandusky earlier this year, dumping paraffin wax into the sewers, causing a massive fatberg and damage to a major highway which they still haven't fixed. It's the railroad that derailed in Springfield causing evacuations, and which recently derailed north of Steubenville, dumping tons of garbage into the Ohio River -- garbage which, had it been C2H3Cl, would've killed fish all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
Republicans, including East Palestine's mayor, have criticized President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for their handling of visits to the disaster in Columbiana County while welcoming former president and habitual liar Donald Trump with open arms. They've also been happy to take evacuation advice from Gov. Mike DeWine -- a man they hated for trying to save their lives during COVID with mandated health precautions -- after DeWine refused FEMA help. Meanwhile, Trump dismantled safety protocols that might've prevented the disaster from ever happening, but Republicans won't listen.
I'll prove it. What if I say that as transportation secretary, Buttigieg failed to visit a train disaster on Jan. 6 in Graniteville, S.C., when two Norfolk Southern trains collided, killing nine persons and requiring 250 more to be treated for chlorine exposure? Does this revelation infuriate you, Republican readers? I bet it does. I bet you're angrier at Buttigieg than Norfolk Southern though, huh? Now what if I tell you that this story is true, except it happened in 2005 when George W. Bush was president and the transportation secretary who couldn't be bothered was Norman Mineta?
Surprise!
In conclusion, re-nationalize Norfolk Southern already.
J. David Core
Toronto