The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1906-12-21
DATA FOR ROOSEVELT
Evidence of Car Shortage Is
Rushed to Washington.
BLAME PLACED ON SHIPPERS
Fail 80 Unload Cars, Say witnesses
for the Railroads at Investigation
Before Interstate Commerce Com
mission at Chicago - Prominent
Traffic Men Are Present.

/ Chicago. Dec 2O-Shippers themselves
were blamed by leading railroad men be
fore Interstate Commerce Commissioners
! Harlan and Lane here to-day for the
! car shortage If the shippers would only
unload their goods from cars instead Of
using them for storage purposes the rail-
/ road witnesses argued, there would be
! cars enough. or nearly enough. 10 meet
all demands.
/ Chicago felt a distinct shock Of Roose-
/ veItian strenuosity in connection with the
hearing. when, at the Presidential com
mand to rush that cOal-famine evi
/ dence." "a battery Of graphophones was
hustled into the Majestic Hotel, that the
testimony just across the street in the
Federal Building might be transcribed in
record time. Relays of stenographers
were kept flying from the Fedefal Build
ing to the hotel all day. their notebooks
flied with testimony hot from the wit
nesses' lips.
Up TO the graphOphOnes raced the
stenographers, shouted the testimony into
the machines at the rate of go words d
minute. and turned the cylinders over
TO other stenographers, who. at top speed.
Transcribed the words with their type
writers.
Testimony soon Ready.
Thirty minutes after the session ad-
journed all the testimony was ready for
transmission to Washington. but a trail
of frayed stenographers filed out Of the
Federal Building, and a big battery Of
graphOphones was suffering from hot
journals.
The inquiry was a continuation Of the
one begun in Minneapolis, and a core
Of prominent railroad men We're present.
But small proportion Of them testified,
however, owing to lack of time. and most
of the witnesses will have to be recalled
later.
The car shortage" said Third Vice
President W. B. Biddle. of the Chicago.
Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, lis
largely due to shippers who. having in
adequate storage facilities, use cars for
that purpose, Forty-eight hours should
be the maximum time allowed shippers
to unload ears.
The tonnage facilities Of the country's
railroads are inadequate to meet the
needs either of the railroads or the ship
pcrs. but the former are doing all in
their power to relieve the situation. Con-
diao7s are worse in the South than in
the North owing to lack of terminal IA
cill;:e@"
The Chicago. Milwaukee and St. Paul
Railroad" said Second Vice President Z.
". McKenna, Of that line brings about
I. 4oO loaded freight cars into Chicago
daily, and the average time a car remains
in the city is seven days. Under proper
conditions four days would be enough.
A movement is on foot by the railroads
10 investigate the cause Of this delay and
TO devise remedies.
7 consider 100 miles in twelve hours q
fair rate of speed for moving cars. The
Milwaukee road has LOO locomotives. of
which an average Of 42 per cent are out
of service
J. W. Midgely. who said ne was en-
ployed by Stuyvesant Fish, ]. J. Hill +.
II. Hartman, z. p Ripley. and other
railroad finanCieTs TO investigate the car
movement question. recommended "a sort
Of car clearing house, in which there
would be a pool of interests so far as the
use of cars was concerned
Gets stock for Nothing.
Kansas City. No. Dec. 20.-At the Inter
state Commerce Commission car-shortage
hearing to-day J. r. Crow. president of
the Crow Coal and Mining Company. of
Kansas City, testified in reply to a ques-
tion that S T. Fulton, of Chicago, assist
snt to President Winchell, Of the Rock
Island Railroad. holds $1,000 in stock in
the coal company.
He admitted Mr.. Fulton received the
stock without paying for it, but said he
obtained the stock before he became en-
ployed by the Rock Island.
Philadelphia Dec 20-The purchasing
agent Of the Pennsylvania Railroad has
invited bids for the construction of 5000
cars. The contract viii be awarded
within a few days. Their estimated cost
is S6,00C.000- It is not expected that the
cars viii be delivered before the latter
part Of next year. With the placing Of
this order, the company viii have ordered
within the last two years nearly $1,000 ad-
ditional freight cars of various types.
II Is also said that the company Is get
ting better service out of it's cars than
ever before. The average movement of
its cars per day in 1904 was 1852 miles,
while for the same time this year the
average movement was 27.19 miles day.