New-York tribune., 1907-08-06
HARAHAN OPTIMISTIC.
PROSPEROUS YEAR AHEAD
President Of Illinois Central Dis
cusses Crops and Railroads.
by Telegraph to The Tribune. !

Chicago. Aug. J-Another year of prosperity
has just opened for American railroads, in the
opinion of ]. It. Harahan. president of the
illinois Central Railroad. When asked for his
views of the traffic prospects of the year to-day
Mr. Harahan said:
Prospects have improved very much the last
few weeks, and 1 quite hopeful that
We are going 10 have a satisfactory year.
was feeling rather blue for time, but now
see no reason to fear that we are not to have a
continuance of least normal prosperity
throughout the wear The crops going to
turn out much better than at time we eX-
pected- Cotton is making fine appearance and
is in splendid condition. [ now believe we viii
have a large cotton crop.
In Iowa small grains have turned out To he
fair crop. and the same is true in Illinois
Winter wheat in this state turned out very
well The quality Of the grain is superior to
that of many previous years I'm other places
where different conditions obtained the crop is
doing well, and there is likely to be full yield
Throughout the entire territory tributary 10
lines business continues good and I am
beginning to hope that it will remain 50
throughout the year. so that ! believe there IS
now reasonable grounds for being optimistic.
At all events. handling a much
larger tonnage than at this time last year. The
gross earnings for June and July siowed large
increase over those of the same months last
year.
AS to our ability to handle our traffic eXpc-
ditiousy. have inCreastd equipment sup
plies materially since this time last year. We
have ordered and will begin taking delivery
Immediately Of fifty large locomotives. We have
purchased also five thousand freight cars every
one If which is Of one hundred thousand pounds
capacity. and II We can only keep our equip
limo 10 hp full ISp
of what We possess think viii manage to
.Sct along reasonably we'll
.'Of course. weather conditions in the winter
months ,y have a good deal to do with the
operation Of the roads. but with moderate
weather there IS no reason 70 fear that We VIII
not get along nicely
''CondItiors in the money market have inter
fered materially with the carrying out of the
plans of many of the roads in regard to an IN
crease OF trackad, and other facilities for the
expeditions handling of traffic. We have gone
ahead with our contemplated improvements and
are i'm good shape to handle a largely increased
traffic but some other roads, owing TO the
situation in the money market. have had elther
20 abandon curtau greatly their Contern-
plated Improvement work.
The difficulty Of obtaining money on reason
able terms has become a serious problem with
the roads generally, and until il is solved salts
factorIIy the roads whole will be greatly
ernba IRA ssed In making proper provision for the
expeditions handling OF their traffic.
Some good results have followed IN" EFFORTS
put forth by the American Railway Association
10 bring about such conditions viii enable the
roads to get more service of their equipment:
still thcr" is great room for further improve
mont I'm that direction.
The New England roads seem 10 be dssatis-
fed with the action taken. but you may notice
that since the rule imposing charge Of 80 cents
q dav car on delayed equipment has become
effective these New England roads have taken
20 ordering more cars Could we get tn" scr
vice we should out of our present. supplies of
equipment we would have no difficulty whatever
I'm handling all our traffic eXpeditiouSiy-
"Shippere and receivers of freight can assist
greatly In this direction. IF they would only gel
over the idea that railroad cars ar" not Intended
10 be used as warehouses OF for storage pur-
poses. hut should be loaded and unloaded with
the least possible delay. il would go a long way
toward solving the equipment problem