The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-04
Car Shortage Is Future Buga-
boo of Rail Lines.
Not Enough Cars to Handle
Business, Says Holland.
FEAR TO BUY R. R. BONDS
Business Is Growing Faster
Than the Railroads.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

New York, March I'm the com
paratively short time of the late Frank
Thomson's service as president-in
the late '9Os-of the Pennsylvania
Railroad company, he foresaw a situa-
ton in future not farther away than
ten years, as he thought, which gave
him great concern. He spoke of it
occasionally, although in an informal
friends in this city. He stated that
within a few years the offerings of
shippers to the railroad companies.
especially the trunk lines. would be
far greater than the existing capacity
of the railroads to handle. In other
words, business was increasing far
more rapidly than railroad facilities.
In the early nineties. the late George
Roberts, Mr. Thomson's predecessor
as president of the Pennsylvania rail-
road, spent summer vacation in
Wales. Some incidents centered their
attention upon the Welsh railroads
and that led to a prediction by Presi-
dent Roberts that when a revival OF
business came in the United States
activity would be so great that 1t
would probably entail the doubling OF
the facilities of the larger railroad
companies in order to be able to nan
die the transportation that was offered.
President Roberts did not live long
enough to see more than the begin
ming of the activity which in the last
years of the past century and Tor the
first years of the present resulted in
a prosperity unprecedented in the
United States.
The late A. J. Cassatt, the giant in
tellect of the Pennsylvania railroad,
man of wonderfully acute prophetic
vision, went even farther than his
predecessors. Mr.. Roberts and Mr..
Thomson, had done.
There we're some intimations in vari-
n1TS nv President GaSSaTI
of his conviction that If the railroads
were to keep pace with business &C
tivity an enormous amount OF money
would be needed for the enlargement
of equipment, the improvement of ter
minals and various betterments- Presi-
dent Cassatt felt convinced that un-
less the railroads made preparations
to meet the demands which had come
to them for transportation the danger
was grave that there would be actual
congestion: traffic would be offered
far beyond the capacity of the rail-
roads to handle. so that there would
be something like paralysis. This is
also believed to be the conviction of
President McCrea, Mr. Cassatt's sue
cessor as president of the Pennsyl-
Vcnia-
James j. Hills View.
James J. Hill has been variously
quoted with respect to the financial
needs of the railroads of the United
States if they are to prove equal to the
demands for transportation which Will
be made by the producers of the coun-
try He was reported, a few years ago,
to have said that the railroads would
need as much as five billion dollars
within FIVE years time in order to meet
transportation demands. At another
time. Mr.. Hill was quoted privately as
having said that within few years
the railways of the United States must
expend as much as ten billion dollars
or else the inadequacy of the railroads
$50.
would prove to be a serious obstacle
in the path of prosperity.
Other railway managers have in
private spoken words that conhrfn
Mr.. Hills statement, not going so far
as to fix, as he is reported to have
done. the number of billions needed by
the railways of the United states II
they are to keep step with agricultural
and industrial activity.
At this time. many of the railway |
of the United States look
upon the recent report made by the
Hadley commission as the |
most important public communication |
that has appeared in some years
The Hadley Commission.
The Hadley commissions named /
because the president of Yale univer-
sity was it's chairman-Was occupied
the better part of a year in thorough |
study of the subject of railway Secur1- /
lies. President Hadley some years ago !
gained an international reputation as |
an expert authority on railroad econ /
1n1ics No one questions the ability or |
sincerity of this commission. Our |
-ailway managers look upon one SEN
ence contained in the commissions
report made public early in the pres
mt winter as a statement of the crux
II the American condition President
4adlev writes, and his associates sup
1ort his statement, that the necessary
of the railway facilities
n the United States is now endangered
tore tn nm
.hase new issues of railway securities,
II least in large amounts.
The necessary development of rail-
yay facilities is looked upon as mean
ng exactly what three presidents of
he Pennsylvania Railroad company
meant when they spoke of the i'm
,erative need of great expansion of
-aiIway facilities and what James J.
Hill meant when he stated that thouS-
Lnds of millions would be needed by
he American railroads in the course
# a few years if they are adequately
o meet the demands which transpor-