The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-03

The Vestibule feature of a car is an
Improvement and safety appliance; a
I protection for passengers in passing from
car to car; a protection in the case of acct
dents, and it costs over $1,000 per ear to
put vestibules ON train.
Did you ever figure that when you heat
a passenger car as most passenger cars
are heated, by improved hot-Water heaters.
that 1t costs twice as much for hard coal
fuel consumed in one of these cars year
as 1t costs to heat the houses of the better
class of our citizens?
Did you ever look over the interior fin
ish of first-class passenger car. and did
you notice that the best and most select
woods are used and are brought TO a high
state of polished perfection? Did you
ever compare the interior finish of the
wood work in a passenger car with the
interior finish of the wood work i'm the
magnificent residences Of some of Chica-
COS millionaires? Why old George NJ.
Pullman, when he built His magnificent
residence insist that all the finished wood
work on the inside should be handled and
put in by his own car builders? Simply
because he could get a better article-to
be sure more expensive article-but
more durable article, better class of
wood, and higher grade of workman
ship than could be had from the builder
of even the best of our Chicago resi-
dences.
we thought our passenger cars cost a
great deal if we paid $4,000 or 5000 apiece
Tor Them. We generally carried sixty
people very comfortably in one OF these
cars. The total weight of one of these
so-called cheap cars of bygone days was
ABOUT ooVOO pounds, or very good aver
age OF hait a ton to each passenger in
the car when the car was full There
was no such thing in those old cars of
pygone days as your separate smoking
compartment, with loss of five or six
seats, or seating capacity for twelve or
htteen people. given up to a smoking
room There was a small cubby hole SET
aside for ladies' another for gentlemen
Ihese were called toilet rooms If YOU
were to give the travelling public of to-
day the class of toilet room which. we
gave them twenty-five years ago there
would be a petition to the United States
government for the government control
of railways
AS we increase the expense of building
car-nlaking it more solid and heavier
better able to stand the wear and tear of
everyday travel and the result of acct
dents, which will occasionally happen on
the best regulated raiPoads-we decreasa
by granting additional facilities. such as
smoking rooms buffets elaborate toilet
rooms, the seating capacity OF the car.
instead of $4,000 pounds the modern pas
senger car weighs 6000O to 10000 pounds
lt carries only an average of forty per-
sons-tor the modern traveller must have
more room-and the railroad companies
are transporting an average Of one ton TO
the passenger instead of a half ton in
weight TO each passenger, as on the old
cars of bygone days. This increased
weight makes increased operating expense.
we must have larger and better engine
An engine that will consume more coal
AND all this means additional expense.
AS you increase the facilities for comfort
OF the passenger and endurance and dlira-
billty in the makeup of a passenger car
you decrease its carrying capacity, ard
necessarily you earn considerably less in
revenue In the modern up-to-date passen-
ger car which costs from $4,000 to 81 900,
and the reclining chair car. which costs
from $4,000 to 81, 500, than was earned
some twenty-five years ago in the social
ed cheap cars with a carrying capacity
of fifty 10 sixty passengers, and which
cars only cost from $4,000 to 5000, and
twenty-five years ago we used to get
something like passenger rates. To-day
we are carrying passengers at one-haif
the rates we got twenty-five years ego,
and we are giving them passenger cars
which cost us at least twice the amount
we paid twenty-five years ago.
Yes, / know you viii ask why do rail-
road companies continue to make these
improvements in passenger train service
and eXpend this additional money, when
they might get along without doing so,
and perhaps you may think the railway
companies foolish [ agree With you;
they are foolish I have worked in the
passenger department of railway compa-
MES centering in Chicago for over twenty
five years, and l know they are foolish
and they know they are foolish to incur
these expenses, but they continue to in
cur them. They might cut down the ex-
penses of building a passenger car con-
siderably and preserve all the safety APP
planes of the car ana give the people a
kind of accommodation which would be
comfortable thoroughly satisfactory, but
certainly not as elaborate as the passen-
ger cars of to-day. 1t would accomplish
the same results, and cost less to keep
it in repair than the cars we are using at
present
1T is the duty of the passenger depart
ment of the different railroad companies
to keep in close touch with the require
ments OF the public and to see that a com
peting line has no particular advantage
in the matter of equipment train time
and passenger rates. We are frequently
sent TO inspect a new TRAN on some con-
Meeting line or competing line; we look It
over; it seems to have advantages which
may, everything else being about equal
take from our line and give to our Compel
itor a portion of the competitive travel
which we are now carrying We imrne-
ment and urge something as good, or per-
haps something better We usually get
the latter. The management may object
and suggest that II we incur the additional
expense we simply egg on others TO great
er expense, and II will not be long before
our railroad may be in the hands of a
receiver on account OF the increased ex-
penses which we are pIling on the man
agement Our reply to this IS usually TO
the effect that our chances for going into
the hands of a receiver are much greater
If we do not meet the situation as 1T is
made for us, and that if we must 20 into
the hands of a receiver it Is better to have
made a record for passenger equipment
equal TO the best
Where viii ii end2 I cannot tell YOU.
and sometimes / dislike to think about II.
If the cost of material, the cost of labor.
and increased facilities for manufacturing
passenger cars do not decrease tho ex-
pense OF continued improvements in the
construction Of passenger cars (and this
expense continues 20 double every twenty
five years.. and passenger revenue does
not increase Droportionatelv you can. OF
course, guess the end as well as 1 can.
III we 80 into the question or special