PARAGRAPHS four and five of section five of the
Transportation Act of 1920 provide that the rail-
roads of the United States may be grouped into a
limited number of systems according to a plan to
be prepared and published by the Interstate Com-
merce Commission. Consolidation of railroads be-
came a question of much interest during the hear-
ings before the congressional committees when the
act to regulate commerce was being rewritten. The
interest was intensified when the Interstate Com-
merce Commission held hearings of its own in which
inquiries were made as to the groupings that would
best meet the requirements of the law. Now that
the Interstate Commerce Commission has before it
a record of these hearings and is expected to prepare
a final plan for consolidating the railroads into a few
systems, the public continues to be deeply interested,
so much so that there are proposals to have the con-
solidation provisions of the act modified. Some
would repeal those provisions. Others would amend
them so as to relieve the Commission of the respon-
sibility of publishing a final plan of grouping but
would leave to the Commission jurisdiction over
any mergers that might be attempted from time to

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