The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-28

At LOOKS simple, this map drawing with crayons of different colors and the parcelling out of different lines, but as you study the system)y you get new and vivid impressions of the difficulties which beset traffic managers and gem eraI freight agents and the intricacies of a problem. either on the Great Lakes or along the Atlantic seaboard. which. unless solved, would have seri- ously handicapped our present com- mercial development. This gaily col ored map represents long study and experience and 1t must be changed from time to time to meet changing conditions. Years ago. for example. before railroad methods had been ap- piled to the Sound traffic, there was a case in one of the cities from which steamers took their departure where as many as 200 laden freight cars could not be unloaded because the boats were full. Now if 1t Is found that half a dozen freight cars are being left be- hind when the steamers sail from the same city there Is at once a change in the system of moving the cars that the difficulty may be remedied. When the road took hold of the problem the first step was the collection of definite in- formation as to the amount of freight which could be handled on each line. The man not versed in such a business might suppose that this knowledge would be easiest obtained by finding out just how many steamers would be available. But the man whose occu- patton is the handling of freight has a different notion altogether and begins by measuring the wharf at which the steamers are to land. He must know not only the number of steamers but just how much freight can be deliv-
 
 dock and removed before the arrival of the next. This being ascertained there comes the selection of the steamers for each route and the apporttoning of the traffic that each vessel may receive its proper share of the freight. But the captains of the army of the freight cars cannot conduct their campaigns entirely in accordance with maps no matter how carefully prepared.
 Here as in military affairs the scheme of operation must be so elastic as to take care of the sudden emergency. To take a single example. there are the fishermen who land their catches at Newport, sell their wares to New York dealers when prices are higher there than in Boston and to Boston when the situation Is reversed. There must be provision in the scheme of the freight manager for moving these hundreds Of barrels of fish at an hours notice. He must adjust the freight sent to the diff ferent lines that there shall always be room for the unexpected shipments of perishable commodities and the case of the fishermen is one of hundreds of similar instances.
 That the man over the army of freight cars may know how to act in such emergencies an elaborate system of reports is necessary; these daily re- ports in the industrial army being as important a factor as are the move ments of the aides de camp on a field l of battle. Every time a steamer sails a blank form Is filled out with infor- nation as to how many cars of freight | the vessel carried, where these cars came from and. If there were any cars | left over, how many there were. This blank. with others from all the other sailing points on the system. is for warded to the general offlcesEand so reaches the captain of the freights. If 1t is found that cars are being left day after day at one of the ports then there must be a sufficient encouragement of the system to remedy that difficulty. If a vessel Is delayed beyond her sailing time they must show the cause of de- | lay And the result of these carefully laid plans, carried out with constant WdlCHl dltcutlOh tO tuc slightest detail, is shown daily by the accuracy with which the New York, New Haven and Hartford carries these miscellaneous cargoes to their destina- |tion.
 | The long trains rambling across | country to the seaport city have not | been made up on the hit-or- miss prin~ ciple. When the cars have been un- | loaded and their contents transferred to | the steamer the steamer will have her proper amount of cargo and there will | be no freight left piled upon the dock because there was no room for 1t aboard | ship.
 With the increase of the business of ] the Sound lines there has come here as in the Lake regions demands for | larger boats. To fill the new freight steamer Boston" 15o cars will be re- Quired or five trains of the usual length. and the Boston will have about 150 cars day. There will be no danger that the cars will come in at the rate of | 200 a day one week and perhaps only | a hundred a day the next. This one | new steamer in fact illustrates the en- | tire system of modern land and water transportation wherever 1t has been successfully developed. for its cargo capacity is a fixed quantity and out | of hundreds of freight cars daily trav- cling toward the Sound exactly the right number will be assigned day after day, to the wharf at which 1t makes connection with the overland