Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-07-27
FEAR CAR SHORTAGE
WITH BETTER TIMES
SITUATION REGARDED WITH
APPREHENSION
Railroads Have Been Reducing Re-
pairs to a Minimum and Proper
ties Consequently Are Short
on Equipment

Los Angeles officials of several rail-
roads declare the country is liable TO
face a congestion of traffic which may
be serious and materially jeopardize
general prosperity.
From all indications the congestion
will be as bad as that of the fall and
winter of 1906-1907, when whole COM
munities in the northwest suffered
throughout an icy winter because there
were no cars to haul coal, and bust
ness became stagnated because the
crops were not moved to market.
The interstate commerce commission
has been watching the situation closely.
The fact that the railroads have been
operating in the last few months under
heavy expense and with low rates has
forced them to withhold orders for new
equipment There is less equipment
now available, probably, than there
was last year, because many of the
old locomotives and cars have been sent
to the junk heap and have not been re-
placed. In the face of this there are
evidences of a business boom and a
bumper crop that would have taxed the
power of thoroughly equipped roads to
handle properly.
Predicts Car Shortage
at is not all improbable" said
Chairman Knapp of the commission
to a local railway official while in the
east last week, that there will be g.
great shortage in this country with
in the next few months. All the rail-
road men with whom 1 talk assure me
that business is getting better. Fewer
and fewer cars and locomotives are
idle. When. perhaps after the crop mas
been harvested, business is once re-
,r,I xnri1I 1An Va1raY
or less effort to make up for lost time;
and then it will develop that during
the period of short revenues the roads
have been scraping along on the small
est possible maintenance and repair APP
preparations. They have been forced to
do so. Repairs have been reduced to a
minimum. Properties have in some de-
gree deteriorated.
when the business comes back to
them it will have to be handled, all at
once, with an equipment not up to
standard. The possibility of a car
shortage suddenly developing Is there
fore anything but remote"
Prospects in the West
Other members of the commissioners
press this view with even greater en-
phasis The reports of increasing car
movements have come in steadily for
the last six weeks from all sections of
the country. The west and middle west
look for exceedingly heavy grain crops,
while the south is eXpectant of the
greatest tobacco crop in its history and
a phenomenal cotton crop New Eng
land and the east report factories and
mills preparing for resumption of
full-time work.
All these reports indicate that the
demand for transportation facilities
will be the greatest in years and that
centers of production will be glutted
while markets are bare. In the opinion
of the officials there is no way now
open to prevent this damming of the
tides of commerce. Even If the rail-
roads were to place orders for extra
locomotives and cars Immediately and
the machine and ear building factories
were to run day and night, the number
that could be turned out by October
would be so small as to make practi-
cally no difference in conditions.
This situation will strengthen the ar
guments of the railroads which want to
raise rates. There is little doubt that
they will use it. The point will be
made that not only more equipment,
but greater trackage is necessary to
keep pace with the country's growth,
and If higher rates cannot be charged
under the law the capital for these
improvements will not be Forthcoming.