Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1908-09-05
STRONG
IN CR|TISISM
OF RAILROADS
Big Manufactures Says Their
Unwise Expansion Is LARGE
y Responsible for the Re-
cent Financial Stringency.

CHICAGO, Sept. 4.-Railroad ex
pansion carried to an extreme wa.
largely responsible for the recent
business depression, according tc
Richard I. Crane
Mr.. Crane expresses his opinions on
tae furry from this new and startlinf
viewpoint in an article in the Valve
World, monthly magazine publishes
by his firm, the Crane Company.
Severely scoring the railroad boom
er, Mr.. Crane declares that the rail
roads have wasted millions in need
less extension of their mileage and
have purchased vast quantities OF
equipment which proper management
would have rendered unnecessary.
Fundamentally back of such de-
pressions as. that of the latter part
of 1907 is the boomer; and it is a sig.
nificant fact that he is most strikingly
/ identified with railroad building" saws
Mr.. Crane The railroad boomer
seems to have acted ON the assump-
ton that the railroads must have
hundreds of millions of dollars every
| year that had to be spent on railroad
building and equipment
! 'Dazzled by the glowing pictures
painted by the boomer, the railroad
corporations have anticipated imagin-
! airy future requirements and .lave gone
| ahead extending old lines, projecting
and laying new ones, ordering cars
and rolling stock without any APP
parent thought as to whether the pres
F., ent or prospective transportian needs
.,.F h. Il a.
| Naturally this feyerish activity in
railroad building led manufacturers in
every line connected with railroad
equipment to increase their product
i've capacity. There was sudden ex-
pansion all along the line, and the
coming of the financial stringency
found the manufactures especially
those producing iron and steel and
railroad equipment-expand fully 25
per cent beyond the capacity demand
ed by normal business conditions.
Consequently, we find today that
manufacturers in all these lines have
a great amount of surplus capacity,
representing millions of unproductive
capital.
Very largely this railroad building
and expanding has been unnecessary.
For example: Several lines have
I been projected and are building
across the continent, evidently in the
fancy that San Francisco would have
| an earthquake every year, and there
! fore would need many railroads to
supply materials for rebuilding.
AT the door of the boomer must be
laid several colossal blunders that the
railroads have made, in addition to
the chief blunder of building wholly
needless miles of new track.
One has been the great increase in
/ sidings and the ordering of thousands
! of freight cars for which there was
no necessity under proper manage
ment of the roads. The chief object
of these sidings and cars seems to
have been that the cars might be
loaded with merchandise and kept idle
on the side tracks instead of being
/ drawn as quickly as possible to their
destinations. Apparently the purpose
of the siding is TO enable the railroad
to take double the time TO transport
freight that should be required in
normal times.
SO we have another blunder in the
I
and idle as well as the loaded and idle
icars on the sidings throughout the
country seem to be forgotten, and
there goes out a demand from the
roads for still more cars and more
! sidings, resulting in the piling up OF
still more merchandise, until the cars
make no more mileage than a canal
boat
| What is the natural result of such
situation? There comes a lull in
| business on the coast, and the mer-
chants stop ordering. Then the rail.
roads remember the side-tracked, long
delayed merchandise, rush it through
and dump it on the coast merchants al
a time when the most active demand
for it has fallen of or ceased. The
merchants are severely overstocked
the factories producing the goods in
the east shut down or reduce their
forces and hundreds of workers are
made idle
Mr.. Crane points TO the Gould lines
to illustrate his point.
/ Gould wished to get to the Pacific
coast, Notwithstanding there were
more than enough existing lines fol
the traffic. he says. He reached the
end of his borrowing and several OF
his lines passed under the case of the
courts
1T is too bad that the public wiz
not supply such men as Gould with
money TO continue their reckless
building" Mr. Crane continues, sar
castically. Certainly it is an over
lsight if the public can not see that
here is a good chance to make a per
manent investment
1T is also a good opportunity for
railroad calamity howlers TO blame the
public Tor not being more liberal with
such men as Gould in supplying them
with funds. and also to lay the blame
for Gould's misfortune to the antagon
istic position of the public toward rail
roeass and also 10 railroad legisla
lti31"
Referring 10 the railroads contem
lplated general advance in freight
rates Mr.. Crane says:
ITO my mind this is the most stupid
idiotic proposal that ever came from
live men. The railroads today have
the same rates they have had for
some time and are better on thar
most of the country's industries. Yei