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Some Evidence of Subsidization: the U.S. Trucking Industry, 1900–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Anthony F. Herbst
Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University
Joseph S. K. Wu
Affiliation:
Taiship Company, Ltd.

Extract

This paper is concerned with the rapid growth of the trucking industry during the period 1900 to 1920. Our purpose is to examine the frequently asserted proposition that motor trucking was able to grow rapidly in competition with a well-established railroad industry because of the hidden subsidy provided by public expenditures on highways. Though this is a popularly held notion there has been little empirical evidence presented to support or refute it.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1973

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References

1 Some of the figures for the early years are undoubtedly based on estimates: New York was the first state to require vehicle registration (1901), and Arizona the last (1912). Source of data is U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Commerce, Highway Transportation (Woods Hole, Mass.: National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council, 1960).Google ScholarPubMed

2 Pagé,, V. W.The Modem Motor Truck (New York: Norman W. Henley Publ. Co., 1921), p. 914.Google Scholar

3 Wymond,, M.Railroad Valuation and Rates (Chicago: Wymond &Clark, 1916).Google Scholar

4 Karolevitz,, R. F.This Was Trucking (Seattle: Superior Publ. Co., 1966).Google Scholar

5 White,, P.Motor Transportation of Merchandise and Passengers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1923), p. 81.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., p. 84.

7 Romney,, George “The Motor Vehicle and the Highway,” Highways in Our National Life, eds. Labatut, Jean and Lane, Wheaton J. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), p. 218.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., pp. 221–222.

9 Office of Research, Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Commerce, Highway Transportation (Woods Hole, Mass.: National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council, 1960), p. 190.Google ScholarPubMed