William C. Baker: “I got into this process early serving on the subcommittee, and at the point we entered the debate there was a mechanism…”

“I got into this process early serving on the subcommittee, and at the point we entered the debate there was a mechanism where we fixed prices and the cartels and other parts of the world fixed prices. How can we, if we want to increase our exports, use shipping when the prices are fixed artificially high? How do we expect to change our balance of payments if we are going to allow the shipping to be artificially high? So the gentleman from North Carolina, Chairman Coble, and I and other members of the committee said the end of the Maritime Commission, the end of price fixing, we are going to join the late 1800's and we are going to have competition. No one thought we would do it. The gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Coble] assured them, the chairman of the committee, that we were crazy enough to eliminate them, just as has been suggested by Democratic Congresses before that. This mechanism was old. Seven years ago we asked that they study this mechanism, and this Congress demanded that they study this mechanism.”