Bonus points for anyone giving the name of the railroad president delivering these remarks.
“Recently I have heard or read two public statements referring to the “mixed economy” under which we are now living. This was somewhat of a shock, but it should not have been because the trend has been all too apparent now for some years, and nowhere is it more evident than in the field of transportation. “Mixed economy” means simply that our traditional free enterprise or capitalistic economy has now become partly socialistic. We should ask ourselves if there is any alchemy whereby two such entirely foreign systems can be united. Can we survive under such a mixed economy, that is, survive with our political, economic and other rights as we have known them in the past? Insidious forces have been working, and continue, in almost every walk of life, seeking to rob the American people of those basic values inherent in our Republic. Such forces would warmly welcome the nationalization of our railroads. If corrective action is not taken, that such an eventuality would be the cataclysm that would propel America beyond the point of no return along the road to complete socialism – and indeed perhaps worse.”
One clue—it is(was) not a northeastern railroad president.
A McIntosh has the decade correct by very slim margins, the address this quote was a part of was delivered on 1/5/1960 by J. Clyde Mixon, President-General Manager of the Georgia Railroad/West Point Route in his address, Atlanta-The City of Rails, to the Civitan Club of Atlanta.
Mixon was not the most well known of railroad presidents, however at that time the Georgia RR/West Point Route were Class 1’s. His remarks likely reflects well the thinking of all those railroad presidents mentioned in this thread, plus many others.
The surprise to me, was how early in the '60s the concern of nationalization of the railraods was being discussed. I always thought that was a mid to late 60’s issue with carryover into the early '70s.
You are thinking at least 40 years too late. Think the Wobblies, Woodrow Wilson, the USRA and the Transportation Act of 1920 which by a very narrow margin returned the carriers to the owners, but with yet another level of regulation.
You are correct, I did not even consider what happened during and around WWI. To be honest, I have not studied that part of railroad history as in depth as I would like.