April 1959 page 9

as many as 200 persons. Tired business
men will be able to enjoy the well-
equipped health club facilities included
in the project. The Gastonia Y facilities
will be available to both men and women
and boys and girls.

Greenville project starts
In Greenville, groundbreaking cere-
monies for the new YMCA building were
held on April 23. Athletic fields, an out-
door-indoor swimming pool and numer-
ous health and recreational facilities are
included in the near-million dollar build
ing project which will be constructed on a
28.5 acre site on Cleveland Stree Exten-
sion. Grading of the huge site is being
done at not cost to the "Y" through ar-
rangements with the Euclid Division of
General Motors Corp. The firm will
grade the site in order to demonstrate
new equipment.

The Spartanburg project is still sev-
eral months from the construction stage
but rapid progess is being made on a
capital funds drive which has a million-
dollar goal. Spartanburg expects to build
a family-type YMCA building which will
be a great asset in the community life
of the city.

Anderson, S. C., another important
P & N community built a new YMCA
building several years ago and therefore
qualifies as a pace-setter among P & N
cities.

When the money has been raised and
the buildings are up the vital YMCA
program will have a firmer foundation
on which to build for the bright future
ahead in Piedmont Carolina.

Rolling stock of the Class I railroads
includes 30,000 locomotive units 33,500
passenger train cars, including 3,970
Pullman sleeping cars, and more than
2,000,000 freight cars, including about
275,000 privately owned cars—enough to
form five solid trains reaching complete-
ly across the continent from Maine to
California.

10

Senator Olin D.

The railroad industry was warmly
praised in the Congressional Record of
March 5 as an essential transportation
service which has contributed mightily
to the growth and development of the
United States. The author of this glowing
tribute to the rail industry was South
Carolina's Senior Senator, Olin D. John-
ston.

In the belief that this statement will
be of interest to Piedmont and Northern
employees and friends, SEMAPHORE is
pleased to reprint the following digest of
Senator Johnston's remarks:

In my opinion, one of the most vital
of our industries today is our railroads.
To neglect this segment of our economic
system would indeed have dire and far-
reaching consequences . . .

"For the past few years, I have be-
come increasingly concerned about the
physical and financial condition of our
great American railroad industry . . . I
was much encouraged when the Congress
enacted the Transportation Act of 1958,
and removed the onerous 3 per cent ex-
cise tax on freight shipments.

More legislative relief

"These two pieces of legislation were,
of course, very helpful, and, in my opin-
ion, constituted a good beginning. We
must, however, continue to look for a
complete solution to the still present
problems of discriminatory regulation,
subsidization, and excessive taxation—all
of which still plague this great industry.
The ultimate solution of these problems
can be accomplished only when the Con-
gress acts to take into account the rail-
roads' essentiality and importance to the
economy of this country . . .

"More than $1 billion is paid by the
industry in a normal year in the form of

SEMAPHORE