The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-04-13
SITUATION
ONE OF THE WORST
IN CITY'S HISTORY
1t Has Been Found Necessary
To Cancel Many Orders for
Machinery Because of a
Lack of Cars.
MANUFACTURERS PLACE
LOSSES AT THOUSANDS.
Complaint Is Also Made That
The Pennsylvania Freight
Station Is Too SmaIl-Rail-
roads Blame the Shippers.

Richmond Is III the tnfoes OF one OF
| the worst car shortages ii the history
of the city. according to the state
ments of local manufacturers. The
car shortage on the Pennsylvania has
affected local manufacturing concerns
/ to such an extent that they have lost
| thousands of dollars during the past
| few weeks, because they could not Sc
cure enough cars from the railroads To
| ship their products on schedule time.
| Special orders have flooded the local
seeding machine and other manufac-
turing concerns in the city. and after
the products have been completed and
ready for shipment on the specified
date, given in the contracts, the rail-
roads have not been able to furnish
cars for transportation. hence the or
ders have had to be cancelled. Ii is
practically impossible for local con-
Germs to secure enough cars for the
transportation of their products and
as result they have been compelled
TO cancel hundreds of common orders
in the past two months.
How One Concern Lost.
One local concern, which handles
farm machinery. has been severely
handicapped. The seeding season in
the north and northwest is or and dur
ing the warm weather of March the
farmers in those regions became anx-
ious to secure their machinery that
they might plant early. Orders came
to the local manufacturing concern i'm
hundreds. The machinery was ready,
but the company could not secure cars
to ship 1t. When this prediciment fac
ed the manufacturers they cancelled
thousands of dollars worth OF orders
Other planters who contemplated buy
ing of the local concern turned their
eyes in other directions when they
found that their wants could not be
accommodated. The present cold
weather has stopped the orders for
spring seeding machinery To consid-
cradle extent but nevertheless the To-
cal company, has had to turn down or
der after order through its inability TO
ship and consequently at loss which
amounts well up in the thousands OF
dollars. The whole loss is blamed TO
the railroads for had they given the
proper accommodations to the local
concern, or had, been in position to do
so, the local company would not have
been required to cancel such a great
number of orders.
Another manufacturer in speaking
of the matter said Sometimes we get
cars, sometimes we don't. but the lat
ter statement holds good the most Of
the time" According to his state
ment there has been no time i'm the
past three months that his COMPANY
has been able to secure enough cars to
ship the output of the plant. and meet
the orders which have come into the
Offices of the company.
Freight Station Too Small.
One manufacturer took exception to
the smallness of the local Pennsyl-
vania freight station. saying that when
is so small that it can not be handl-
ed properly. So far as handling the
local freight is concerned. he said. the
conditions are worse than nothing.
Every load OF freight going 10 the
station. according to his statement,
requires a much longer time to unload
than it should.
One local concern basis its gross
loss this spring due 10 the car short
age at So, 900. This is the greatest
however. while the other factories
place their losses al from a few hun
dred to several thousand dollars The
whole will run TO about $50, 900 or
s15,o in Richmond alone.
Railroads Blame Shippers.
The railroads claim that the ship
pers are as much TO blame as the
railroads and state that they have
figures 10 show that the greater per
cent of delay in the movement of cars
the west and in Richmond,
is due to the delinquency of shippers
in loading and unloading cars They
also state that they cannot help them
selves, owing To the great CONNER
-ial development in the past two
years. The Pennsylvania now has
about fifreen thousand cars OF their
1wn on other roads which they can
rot bring hack or secure. .becauser
-nese other roads are suffering the