The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-09
A SHORTAGE OF CARS
FREIGHT TRAFFIC ON ALL ROADS
Is IMPAIRED.
Montgomery Railroad Man Talks Of
Perplexing Problem which Con-
fronts Rail Lines Of the
Country,

rs there a car shortage? Well. this
morning l tried to get fifty freight cars
and did not g@ single one
This was the remark OF a Montsom a
lair Illustration Of the condition tha maj
confronts every road running ih.o
Montgomery. The car famine Is pc
coming serious matter Win .h re LIS IL Is
that it is getting worse instead VI
Yesterday planter from the county aa,s
of lot Of cotton seed to one of the
Why, no. we can't buy YOU. seed
ssd at the SEEN Wagud OF the rail-
roads could get cars in which to orihs
While this may he exaggerated
rect state of affairs Cars are simply Ply
not to be had at any price and tne
problem is becoming one OF such s Iara
ty as to keep traffic and transports y
men awake nights trying to figure IL
I'VE would have all the cars need,
ed said railroad man. II we nav
ali or even a big part of the cars owned q
BY our line. Unfortunately for Us
very small percentage of the cars own
ed by our company are at our DISPOSE,
eeng ssa3tsred r syeryMasfs one Of
our cars is loaded and shipped to a
station either on our own or some oth,
er road. When the car Is unloadeo a.
lately reloaded and shipped to some
other point The same process Is I'M
dergone there and before o., many many . cav
pur car Is thousands OF mics away
from Its original destination.
There Is no possible means OF ferc-
ing the return of these cars, for SO
vitality do the railroads Of the e, cou III,
the per diem in force by the American
arranged by the Association in order
to try to tore the return Of some oi
Every road using one of our cars pay;
twenty-five cents day for the use @
the car for the first thirty days. Al
the car. BY this, you can see how ex *
pensive 1t would be for any road tc
hold freight cars belonging to another
road If they were not IN use. .o tha,
the cars are not in use. Every hour O.
the time they are constantly traveii
ing over thousands of miles or ran
roads. A road out in California may
have some of our cars in use on It's
line. and if we succeed in getting then
| started back to Montgomery they are
bounced upon by some other road whicf
needs cars as badly as we DO. long pc
| fore they can get to Montgomery.
The per diem is charged and pait
bv the roads interested in the first OF
| every month";, anu the Jou ~ tldSii eh'
| lost cars is a mammoth one.
There was a time when we used II
bank strings of cars at every sizing
so as to be ready for the rush wner
| the cotton crop began to move in me
| Fall. Under this. per diem plan. how
ever, this is all done away with. as II
| would be too expensive for a railroad
| to bank lot of cars and hold then
! for months at one place. OF course oui
road is using the cars OF other line.
just as they are using cars belonging
| to us. and it forms an endless chain
Sooner or later, this chain revoives
| around to its initial point. but the In
| terested people are put to great fncon-
Ivenience until this initial point is reach
Other roads suffer as greatly as we
do but that fact does not help US one
DO you know the principle cause
portation man ut is that the demand
for labor is so much greater than the
supply. Here in our shops car after
car comes in to be repaired and some
times stays there for day after day "a,
anything with them The scarcity OF
labor is equal to the scarcity of cars
and Is getting to be as troublesome g
problem
negro men and boys are loafins or
street corners or around corner grocer
les. They refuse to work II the
vagrancy law was enforced by the ely
this phase Of the labor question would
settle itself. and the railroad people
would be one class of the citizens oil
Montgomery who would rejoice to sec
the vagrancy law rigidly enforced
Pullman Service to East.
The passenger service of the rail
roads is so muoS better than 1t used To