Emergency Board To Investigate a Railway Labor Dispute Remarks Announcing Establishment of the Board.

I have an announcement to make about the Rock Island Railroad.

I'm today appointing an emergency board, under the Railway Labor Act, to intervene in the labor dispute that has crippled the Rock Island Railroad since August 27.

This strike is having a severe, adverse economic effect on farmers throughout the Central United States. Processing mills for grain are already shutting down, and within 2 weeks the marketing of what promises to be a record grain crop could be genuinely threatened. If the grain does not begin to move on schedule with the harvest, not only would there be economic loss to the farmers and an employment loss in the grain-processing industry, but ultimately the consumers would be affected by higher food prices as well.

The purpose of this action is to get the trains rolling again in a matter of days and to start moving grain that has already been piling up in the large areas of the Midwest served by the Rock Island Railroad line.

Because the Rock Island is critically short of cash, it's probable that the railroad will not be able to restore service on its own, even with this action. To meet that difficulty, I'm asking the Interstate Commerce Commission to take the steps needed to permit other railroads to employ Rock Island employees and workers to maintain service.

I'm taking these strong actions, because we absolutely must mobilize all our transportation resources for the movement of grain during this period of record-breaking grain harvests and also record-breaking demands for grain exports. Not only our farmers but also the consumers of grain—both here within our own country and, indeed, throughout the world-simply must be protected.

I've acted because the normal process for settling labor disputes has broken down, primarily as a result of the likelihood that Rock Island will not be able to reorient its services because of financial difficulties. And we must restore this service of financial support if a settlement is to be reached and carried out.

As an additional step, I directed the Secretaries of Transportation, Labor, and Agriculture to work closely with the State officials and also with the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission in solving the inevitable day-to-day problems involving safety and operation of the railroad, in getting this Rock Island line rolling again across the grain belt.

We must now move quickly beyond this immediate problem and work to restore all our Nation's rail services to a high degree of efficiency and financial stability.

The current situation on the Rock Island is symptomatic of the problems that confront the entire United States rail industry. To prevent further problems such as those I've confronted with the Rock Island, I call upon the Congress to pass without delay the rail deregulation proposal to break the strangulation of outmoded, unnecessary economic regulations, which will help the industry to generate the revenues it needs and to maintain and to improve its services. Only by such fundamental action can we avoid further bankruptcies and further dislocations in our rail industry throughout the country.

Such a deregulation reform bill will be a victory for the hard-pressed rail industry, for the shipping and the consuming public, and for the taxpayers, who are increasingly having to subsidize the rail industry.

Now I'd like to ask Neil Goldschmidt and the other officials with me on the stage to answer questions from you. And I'm sure that the people in the Midwest will be well served by this action.