New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-11-01
MONEY LOST BY CAR FAMINE.
BIG RAILROADS ABLE TO HANDLE ONLN a
PORTION OF THE FREIGHT OF
FERED TO THEM.

For the GENERATING official OF largo railroad 20
sit in his ofnce and thousands upon thousands.
even hundreds Of thousands Of collars worth OF
earnings made Impossible simply because he has
NOT ,ne rolling stock 10 handle the freight offered
e almost rnaddening There IL to-day from one
end Of the country 10 the other an acute car
famine Big manufacturing concerns large pro-
ducers and shippers lose heavily because they can
not move their goods.
In some instances factories and shops have had
to close down because they could not get their
goods handled by the railroads. The complaint Is
bv no means local. The big roads and the little
roads are suffering alike. Whenever a road gets
hold OF a car the operating official or that ROAD
Immediately becomes a highwayman lie does
not care what road that car belongs 10 or when II
has 20 10 back. He simply aPproprates II anu
holds on 70 II until by some inadvertence It gets
off his line and then some one else grabs It.
Samuel r. Galloway president Of the New-fork
Central made tho subject Of adequate rolling
stock an issue with the Board of Directors Of his
road When railway men all over the country
heard that he had secured an appropriation OF
N5coOOo0 TO buy equipment. they gasped. They
said he must have gone after his Board Of Direc-
tors with an axe. The fac' Is that, although Mr..
Galloway has almost doubled the earnings OF the
road and placed II In better physical shape than IL
ever has known, he has been handicapped anu
thwartcd by lack Of rolling stock lie placed the
situation plainly before his Board Of Directors, and
they agreed with him. and ordered not only what
he asked for. but granted $4,000 more than he
asked. This success his part has embodened
others and now the operating officials all over the
country are demanding earnestly more equipment
and the prospect IS that in many cases they VIII
get It. This tends TO indicate that hundreds and
thousands Of cars viii be built within the next
two years -, ,
John H. Cowcn. president Of the Baltimore and
| Ohio frankly admits that the Baltimore ana ono
cannot handle its freight. on account OF lack OF
cars The Baltimore and Ohio has been more lib-
eral within the last TWO years in that Lne' ana
! purchased more cars In that time than any othcI
| road in the country. and stu they are not
equipped. I'VE are" says Mr. COwen, IN the
same boat as the roads over the country generally
/ owing TO tho tremendous activity in manufactures
| Although a considerable addition has been made to
our equipment and every car available Is IN ser
vice. We could find work for ten thousand more
cars to-day. Last January we ordered I'VE thou
sand pressed steel cars, and II these had been re.
! ccived in time IL would have made d difference OF
$4,000 in the earnings OF the Baltimore and ohio.
The delay Is due TO the fact that the manufacture
| crs cannot auppy the steer owing to the unprece-
denied demand. Deliveries Of these will be
| gin to-day but Il is hard 10 say when they VIII all
be received
1t Is the same complaint everywhere. The Penn
| sylvania IL badly crippled President Thomas Of
the Erie. also wants cars. President Truesdale, OF
| the Lackawanna, IL asking for cars. and so Is Mr.
| Walter Of the Lehigh. In the mean time Just 50
much freight can be handled. and what cannot
| be handled must walt.