The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1906-12-20

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perience all too common and is what
a man must expect who puts his mon
ey into the livestock business in the
northwest and depends upon the rail-
| roads to get the cattle to market for
him. As to other shipments, he told of
one car that came from the west coast
In six months, and OF another that took
a year Delays were common, but
these We're exceptional cases.
A General Decentralization.
Now, personally, have been treat
! ed splendidly, and / don't want to be
put down as a chronic kicker, but
realize these things and now see them
+, from the standpoint of a shipper. In
my relations with the roads, / have
| tried to get away from the attitude of
having it in for any road. You can't
| say anything of this decentralization
| have been speaking of to any of the
head officers, because they'd get hot
right off. Yet there are some fine men
among railroad officials. The North
/ ern Pacific has fine men in it's traffic
| department, in it's legal department"
! (here Mr.. Bum smiled and bowed),
land in all it's departments But for
! some reason there is a decentralization.
Il have a contempt for dead men
wherever you find them. Unless some
one speaks out, We'll never get any
thing better. The roads must first keep
! up their capacity and engine power.
| This talk of car shortage is rot. There
| is none. The trouble is the roads are
not moving the cars they've got Get
he cars in motion and thereIl be no
| shortage"
Mr.. Phelan," inquired Mr.. Harlan,
show long do you consider it has been
since this decentralization of which you
speak, began?"
We'll, it commenced about three
years ago." answered Phelan. 81 tell
you, somebody goes to sleep. Some
thing goes wrong And it is all emp
tied into the mosnomer of a supposed
ear shortage. EXECUTIVE officers seem
TO be more interested in using a blue
pencil and cutting down a list of sup
plies to save money, than in keeping
them up for necessary repairs.
Not Close to the People.
IF James j. Hill would pay half the
attention to men on his road that he
does to hogs on his model farm, there
would be no car shortage on his line.
Can audible litter went around the
courtroom) The trouble is, the weak
ness of one road finds reflection i'm 9TH
, er lines. For instance, one road, the
Great Northern, finds it can get along
by cutting down its supplies for repairs
materially, and the Northern Pacific
seeks to save money in the same new
way
/ IF there were established a certain
standard for operation and like expen-
laItares, 40 you think tliat would tend.
toward a solution of the difficulty?"
asked Mr.. Harlan.
You're correct" replied Phelan.
l"But the trouble then would be, the
fellow down on Wall street who discov-l
cred the increased expenditure would
prepare stuffed club to knock ii out
to get more dividends. Once let the
edict go forth that fast trains are more
expensive than slow ones, and subordi-
mates who are operating with slow,
thick brains, who can't see any addi-
tional benefit win call for the slow
trains"
Mr.. Phelan devoted some time TO the
attention that railroad officials are CIV
ing to cultivating the high tonnage
per mile"
Ton Mile a Fiction.
This tonnage per mile game said
,Phelan, lis more or less of a fiction.
In fact it is false as hell, when you
come down to 1t. They'll run a $1,000
ton train, and then after that an en-
CINE and caboose, without counting in
the engine and caboose at all in maxi
ing the average; it is a most ridiculous
thing. Now, don't put me on record as
against an engine pulling all it can
But what I'm against is the evil of
putting out an engine not in repair to
pull maximum tonnage. Putting in a
locomotive in first class-repair with
lnaximum tonnage, is good thing for
the railroad stakeholder, for the ship
per- and for all concerned The pres
ent system under which the ordinary
little engine is put out to pull a 1900
ton train, Is nothing short of idiocy.''l
The witness described a case which
came under his observation, where a
little engine had been used for a big
load, and as result Of numerous
Gerkings, several couplings had been
pulled out, the train laid UP, and the
train crew finally went to sleep on the
sight to him was Just as good as
grand opera" He concluded his testi-
gnony with statement that where
empties are lying at some point wait
ing for crew to take them west, and
one comes along east bound, that these
sempties should be loaded with freight
waiting to go east, and timethus saved
and congested freight moved "The
railroads should always have men on
the ground to know what to do, and,
what is more men who viii do it, he
said
Mr. Marble read statement by j. |
Nv. Midgeley Of Chicago. a recognized
railroad authority, who wrote in re-
cent report that the trouble was not
lack of cars but need OF better meth
DDS in handling the present car sup
ply. Did Mr.. Phelan agree with this
statement? He replied that he did,
saIton Sea Again Flooded.