LEARNING THE TRAGIC VISION YOUNG.

Ferroequinologists developed the locution, "E-T-T-S," to note the depressingly common phenomenon of something good in railroading going away.  To outsiders, what the enthusiasts lamented might have been karma after a century of the railroads acting like the worst sort of rent-seekers, or it might have been a simple lack of enlightenment.  After the War, the promise of Route 66 or the perpetual fun side of high school the Beach Boys were singing about made lamentations about trains being discontinued or streetcars replaced by buses so last year, to use a locution not yet in common parlance.  And, from sixty years ago, the congestion to come on the expressways was something to be fixed by smart roads, and the possibility that all that public money spent on building the road network would ineluctably lead to additional public money being spent on a "wonderful transition" to something not a public road network, and sold under the rubric of building back better would likely have been laughed off as delusions.

SILVER AND GOLD. The Milwaukee Brewers went to the World Series in 1982, and the Milwaukee, formerly Boston, Braves won the 1957 Series. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel claims to see a pattern, with a weekly (??) "Back Then" feature.

Unfortunately, there's a different pattern. Yes, the Braves won the 1957 Series. The last Milwaukee Streetcars ran in early March, 1958. In April, the North Shore Line filed for abandonment. Yes, the Braves returned to the Series that year, and they lost it. A twelve-year-old future political activist, Paul Weyrich of Racine, Wisconsin, organized a citizens campaign to oppose the abandonment of the North Shore. His efforts were not successful. His organization's talking points included some sports economics, noting that the North Shore had a Wrigley Field stop (then also the Bears' field) and that there was potential for recurrences of the World Series in Milwaukee (although, note, not at Wrigley Field.) No North Shore Line, although within the next ten years, the tracks may be restored from Dempster St. to Harms Woods, and no further Series wins in Milwaukee.

ROAD SOCIALISM. A few weeks ago, Metro Rider LA recommended Cold Spring Shops to readers as a kind of political crossover for transit advocates, who the Metro Rider perceives as of the left.

If I were to hazard a guess about a broad section of MetroReaders, politically they would trend to the center and leftward from there. (This is not meant as a slight to those who don’t believe to fall into those camps, as there should be no political “purity” test imposed on anyone. Frankly, the less we wage political battles here, the better.)

Now comes Dr. Melissa Clouthier, who invites people of the right to take an interest in infrastructure policy.

Matt Lewis writes a must-read piece about a conservative view on public transportation. I’m not going to get into the details of it, but I urge you to read it.

Here is where conservatives and Republicans need to get with the program: the government does have a role in public life. Infrastructure and defense are the two obvious roles. The problem for conservatives, is that they haven’t given enough thought to the implementation of tax dollars for infrastructure. This void has been filled with leftist fantasies. The results haven’t been effective or pretty. That is, both form and function have stunk.

The Lewis article refers to recent work by William Lind and the late Paul Weyrich that Metro Rider also found commentary on. Here's Lewis.

While "Moving Minds" was recently published, it is actually the collection of eight separate transportation studies conducted and published by conservatives Paul Weyrich and William S. Lind between 1997 and 2009. Weyrich, who passed away in late 2008, was co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, and one of the most significant conservative activists and commentators of modern times. Interestingly, his first foray into politics came as a teenager when he attempted to save the famous North Shore Line through his hometown of Racine, Wisc.

Regular readers of Cold Spring Shops (A Rail Advocate Passes) know this. The Edens Expressway and Interstate 94 in Wisconsin, which induced commuters away from the North Shore and contributed to the end of the 400s and Hiawathas, continue to be congested work zones when they're not congested and clapped out. Government can do better.

For starters, their book seeks to shape conservatives' views on mass transit by pointing out that our current system is anything but the product of free market forces.

Since the invention of the Model T, the U.S. government has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the highway system, while mass transit (which historically had been privately owned) received vastly smaller infrastructure benefits -- while being taxed heavily to boot. What's more, the government simultaneously prohibited these mass transit companies from raising fares.

Privately owned mass transit companies simply could not compete when they had to build and maintain infrastructure while their competition was funded by tax dollars. In addition, the authors note that post-World War II building codes in many areas created sprawl – a situation where homeowners cannot walk to work or to shop, and thus, must rely on an automobile. The authors present numerous and convincing arguments in favor of mass transit – especially street cars and electric-powered light rail trolleys – that are applicable to conservative thinking: Unlike automobiles, rail fosters a sense of community; increased use of electric rail would help accomplish national security goals by lessening our dependence on foreign oil; and mass transit policy is also pro-growth – something most conservatives favor.

I'm not sure about some of those public policy goals, and we shall see that there are other inducements to sprawl as we currently understand it. Cold Spring Shops, however, welcomes conversation about transportation policy on the merits of the modes, rather than on the ideology of the advocates.

POLITICS MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. Live from the Third Rail discovers that Paul Weyrich views the highway program as misplaced socialism. Yup. Paul Weyrich got involved in politics as a twelve-year old, attempting to save the North Shore Line.

CROOOOW isn't happy with the outcome of the division playoffs. Hey, back a runaway team, get what you deserve. (A historical note: Paul Weyrich got his start in politics working to save the North Shore Line. One of the talking points in his work was the likelihood of frequent World Series in Milwaukee. Alas, the North Shore quit in January of 1963, and the Braves ran away in 1965.)

A RAIL ADVOCATE PASSES. Charlie Sykes reports the death of Paul Weyrich. James Rowen correctly describes one aspect of Mr Weyrich's advocacy.

Weyrich, an ally of former Mayor John Norquist's on the rail issue despite their party differences, thought government's monopoly provision of highways violated free market principles because it withheld the rail choice from taxpayers.

We've noted Mr Weyrich's rail advocacy, and the beginning of his activism working to save the North Shore Line, numerous times over the years.

DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE. Destination: Freedom reports on the disappearance of some text from the National Surface Transportation Commission report, including the following indictment of politically correct socialism.

Most of those cities once had electric railways. They lost them, not to the fair market, but to massive government intervention in favor of highways and cars. As early as 1921, government was pouring $1.4 billion into highways. In contrast, the vast majority of electric railways were privately owned, received no government assistance and had to pay taxes. Further, their fares were often controlled by local governments, which did not allow them to rise despite inflation. As a result, by 1919 one-third of the country’s streetcar companies were bankrupt.

The principal author of that section was not a ringer from Portland or an apostate from the Reason Foundation.

National Corridors Initiative has learned that an important pro-light-rail section of the report, written by Commission member Paul Weyrich and adopted by a 9-3 majority vote of the commission, has disappeared from the Commission’s final report.

If true, these actions could lead to Contempt of Congress charges against the Bush Administration employees found responsible for falsely editing --- in effect, lying about --- the content of the final report of the commission.

Weyrich, who founded the Heritage Foundation and also founded and is chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, has been a leader of the American conservative movement since the days of the Reagan Administration. He is also one of the most knowledgeable and sought after supporters of public transportation especially light rail, in America.

Mr Weyrich's early efforts in political activism focused on saving the North Shore Line.

Also in this week's newsletter, an unanticipated version of digital command control. Years ago, an uncle told me about Californian garage doors opening when Vandenberg tested a missile, and speculating about whether a Californian going on a joyride ever fired a missile.

UNWITTING ACCOMPLICE. Yes, there is a vast right wing conspiracy, reports Newmark's Door. And I have evidently been a long-time participant. Like Paul Weyrich, I have been a fan of the North Shore Line, although I did not get involved in efforts to save it (perhaps a bit much even for a precocious seven-year old.) And I did earn some college money at Allen-Bradley (the reason Rockwell moved headquarters to Milwaukee) as did my father and all my siblings. But, like Clayton Cramer, I have never received any grants from the Bradley Foundation, established with proceeds from Rockwell's acquisition of Allen-Bradley. Notwithstanding that, I will note that Rockwell products qualify for Get It From Wisconsin.