Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to work around it, other times you're better off attacking the problem head-on. The builders of this incline railway chose the latter. After the devastating flood of 1889, the Cambria Iron Company built this railway as an escape route for the citizens of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The line opened for business in 1891 and has been in operation ever since. It is billed as the steepest incline railway in the country capable of carrying a vehicle; and with a slope of seventy-one degrees, I believe that's true. You can read more about the history of this line here.

Since the beginning of its operation, this railway has provided quick access from the heart of the city to the high grounds on the west side; and was responsible for the growth of Westmont Borough - one of the first residential suburbs in these United States. I had an opportunity to ride the line during a recent stay in Johnstown. In only a couple of minutes, the incline delivers you to the top of Yoder Hill. From there, you have a commanding view of the City of Johnstown. In the photo - if you look to the right of the upper station - you can see an observation deck built out from the top of the hill.

I'm always amazed when I look at machinery built in the late 1800's; the quality and pride of workmanship are readily apparent. The railway cars are pulled to the top of the hill on a set of cables - one car going up as the other comes down. You can watch the hoisting machinery in action through a window in the visitors center - also at the top of the line. To simplify running the line, the original steam engine was replaced in 1962 with an electric motor. It's unfortunate that the original steam hoisting engine could not be retained; but the maintenance and operation of a seventy year old steam engine was labor intensive, expensive, and required job skills that were no longer readily available. I can understand why the owners of the line made the change.

If you stop to think about it, the existance of any of the original equipment is a minor miracle - considering the cost of keeping the railway in operation. The electric motor is a minor sacrifice of historical authenticity when compared with what's been saved. We are fortunate that relics such as this survive in a capitalist society when they can no longer pay their way. It is the dedication and hard work of visionary individuals - people who understand that historic artifacts have value beyond their ability to generate a profit - that provides each successive generation with a direct connection to the past.

When you walk onto the observation platform and look out over the city, you can't help but notice the steel mill buildings. According to a resident - who happened to be jogging by - they are all closed save for one. When the production of steel moved overseas in the 1970's and 1980's, the economy of Johnstown was devastated. Like so many other cities in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the nation wrote it off with the derisive term "rust belt". I've never understood why our nation turned its back on the steel industry; the production of quality steel is a matter of national security. What happened in Johnstown, and Bethlehem, and Allentown, and countless other cities was more than just union busting, or cost cutting, or modernization ... it was the large scale abandonment of a major slice of middle class America. Today, you can see the auto industry suffering through the last stages of this same misguided economic policy. Democratic Member of the House John "Jack" Murtha has been crowned the King of Pork for bringing his hometown more earmarked dollars than anyone else in Congress. To this long time Representative for the citizens of Johnstown, I'd like to say, "congratulations on a job well done". All of the money this Congressman brought home to his district has been used to buy time, to rebuild the city, to remake it into something new. Johnstown has been given another chance at survival; a lot of other steel towns have been less fortunate.

In these United States, there is a rising tide of protectionist sentiment among the middle class and all I can say is "it's about time". The steel industry has secured some protection under the Bush Administration, but not nearly enough to bring steel production back to Johnstown; that's just not going to happen. Lately, I've been leaning towards the "Fair Trade not Free Trade" argument. We should be exchanging goods and services with our trading partners; instead we trade our assets - or future claims on our assets - for their goods and services. In the long run, that is a formula for disaster ... perhaps the long run is already here. We need to do something to balance trade and discourage the continued exportation of our factories and jobs. As a nation, we are amassing an unbearable level of debt and leaving it as an inheritance for our children. What kind of nation have we become? What have our children done to deserve this?

I'm also starting to think a National Sales Tax isn't such a bad idea. At first glance it just sounds like another tax; however, if used properly, it would tend to create jobs for American workers without raising taxes at all. The Federal Government - under our current tax system - collects Federal Income Taxes from American workers who produce goods and services in this country. The Federal Government does not collect these taxes on goods and services that are produced overseas - even when they are sold in these United States. This tax policy puts American made products at a big disadvantage to those produced overseas, and provides global corporations a huge incentive to move jobs "over there". Global corporations - using foreign labor which pays no U.S Federal Income Tax - produce goods and services overseas and sell those products here because our trade and tax policies encourage them to do so. We need a new set of policies - a change in our system - to discourage the cannibalism we've quaintly been calling "out sourcing".

The Federal Government could begin collecting a National Sales Tax on all goods and services sold in these United States and use the revenue to lower the Federal Income Tax on wages for American workers. This policy would redistribute the federal tax burden onto all goods and services sold in these United States regardless of their point of origin. We need to level the playing field between U.S. and foreign laborers. We need to adjust our tax policies to accommodate this era of global free trade. To compete on the global market, we need to stop collecting Federal Income Taxes on our exports and start collecting taxes on our imports. A National Sales Tax is an easy and fair way to accomplish this goal. Give it some thought; but remember this, "If we choose to do nothing, something will happen anyway ... we just won't have had a choice."

Copyright 2008 no1nsfan@juno.com

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