Who Gets the Sleepers?

Pullman, Inc. decided last week that it would like to sell its sleeping-car business to the railroads. Twenty-two of them, under the leadership of square-jawed Fred Gurley, Santa Fe president, have offered to pay approximately $75,000,000.

Thereupon Alleghany Corp.’s Robert

Ralph Young, who would like to buy the sleepers himself, angrily claimed that sale of the sleepers to the railroads would not break up the sleeping-car monopoly. Interlocking financial interests of the roads with Pullman, Inc., he charged, would form a new monopoly. He also heckled the hidebound railroads for making through passengers change cars at Chicago and other Midwest terminals. At the hearings, he hinted that if he gets the sleepers, he will end this outdated nonsense.

This week the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia is trying to decide who will get the sleeper service. No matter what it decides, the fight over the sleepers may wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.