The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-06
Car Famine is Serious.

"Cars. cars, cars" That is he cry of the railroads, q cry that IS swei ing in a mighty roar of despair l"f it is far easier for the roads to get gold dollars than it is to get 1reight cars. |,
 In Montgomery the situation 's reaching the acute stage, but from eV- show that it is just as bao as IL IS here. Nearly all of the big system : have men out doing nothing pu : hunting for cars belonging to their lines, Several of these agents have been through Montgomery recently and one of them had an experlencs here the other day that he won't soon forget. He was New l. -ork Centrti man running fine tooth comp through this section of the country to locate cars belonging to that road One morning a few days tgo he wall- ed into the office of the car accoun. ant of a local road with a: air or well, it's a cinch that l am going to get what I came for and you might as well cough up in hurry.
 Gan you tell me- he said to th' local car accountant, "how many or our cars are on your road?
 why certainly said the car ac- countant, and after going through his records found that there were twenty one New York Central cars on the line.
 well, I wish you would see to it that those cars are returned to our road immediately" said the New fork Central man who turned to !eave the office.
 Wait one moment" sad tho car accountant, flor there Is another re- port that I want to make to you. 1u looking over my books I find that there arc forty-two of our cars on the line of the New York Central. anI I wish you would embody this in the report you make to your company
 And meekly without insisting on the return of even a bumper on any Of his cars he oozed out of the office Of that car accountant sadder but wiser man.
 And that is fair sample of the cas } all over the country. Cars are scat tered from Maine to Mexico, and the road getting hold of any kind ot freight car swings to It with a death grip Orders for cars have been put in by nearly all of the local roads, but 1t seems an impossibiIity to get the orders filled.
 The Louisville and Nashville is turn ing out their own cars at the Deca . tur, Evansville and Louisville shop, but the demand is so much greater than the supply that they are swamp ed The fact is that business through out the United States has increased so amazingly during the past few years that the railroads have sd up the entire car supply of the country The car shops have been totally unable to meet the unprecedented demand, anu the present car famine is the result.
 The car famine is not the only trou' ble. as some of the local "oads hav1 more business than they c%n handle. A Montgomery merchant was trying fo trace a lot of goods which had been shinped to him week or so before and should have been m Montgomery, The car in which the goods were was finally located, and it was found that 1t had been in a sidetrack Tor thre" days at a station few miles out of Montgomery. The goods in question were of class entirely out In Mont gomery and the merchant could have made a good profit on them could ho have gotten them three or four days before he found the car at this local sidetrack.
 The Atlanta Constitution says of the matter:
 Tt Is no doubt true. as claimed, that the employees of the great railroad systems are doing the best they can to maintain 1felSnt anu pd9S'IlS' schedules with tho facilities which have been given them to do the work. Still that does not give the public the promised ser,ice nor relieve tn" pub lie inconvenience. The very fact of failure is an evidence Of 'ault soms- where. it may be with the man or men whose duty it is to so that the proper facilities are supplied and that the road is kept in suffi ,,ent first class equipment. :--~
 "'The trouble. said a well known railroad man. may be sumrlCd up 'n few words. Go to the locomotive works and place an order for ten en- zines. for instance, rendering the casa. You will be told you cannot get then under twenty-four months The prev alent prosperity was not anticipated l. hence all railroads were Enprepared for 1t. Now they are all clamornS for equipment and none of them can get 1t fast enough"
 This statement may explain but it cannot justly, the delinquency. At best it simply transfers the rcsponsi- bility for inexcusable conditions to tn. man higher up. Railroads arc, as d rule, provided with high salarie l