South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-07-02
Railroads Rush 10000 Cars
to Fields to Carry WhOpper
Grain Crop; S56,000,000
in Freight Charges Alone.

Uncle Sam right now is laying in for
fair to the most colossal job of all his
life!
He's wheeling in the wheat.
Nine hundred million bushels of it,.
Seven hundred million dollars worth
the king of crops!
1t will take 10000 freight ears to
move that crop to market-and those
cars have got to be found at once.
and filled with the grain that a horde
of farmers in a dozen states are haul
ing to the rural shipping points.
That's the reason red-faced men in
shirt sleeves along 100000 miles of
railroad are sweating and swearing,
and switching thousands of cars onto
already oVercroWded sidings That's
the reason high railroad officials, of
otherwise impeccable honesty, are
ruthlessly "swiping" every last car of
any old rival road they can victimize
If that car be only "ft for grain!"
Farmers. bankers, laborers. manufac-
turers, Office clerks--the people Of
America-are co-operatoing feverish-
ly TO finish up the champion chore of
our farming history
Prosperity From Farms.
Uncle Sam is not a city man. He's
a farmer
Some of his sons have set up fac
tories IN the towns. and now are pratt
tling of their portentous import TO
prosperity But Uncle Sam back on
the farm only smiles He knows
what port prosperity halls from.
jest you cotton to tn crops, young
man. he says. and ploughs a few
more acres And when il comes TO
the he calls a1
TO help him-for the sake of their
daily bread.
Just at present Uncle Sam is har-
vesting a pretty considerable crop Of
wheat-9OO 0OO,0 900 bushels of it. a
v orld record. And every last bushel
of it has got 10 be cared for-moved,
marketed. milled. and made into meal.
It's Americas mightiest job!
An army of harvest hands have
begun their laborious march north
ward over the golden grain fields,
leaving behind them a prairie-wide
swath of stubble, and innumerable
stacks of grain.
They start in Oklahoma, move
nOrthward through Kansas and Ne
braska. into Minnesota and the two
Dakotas Banks and manufacturers
help them in the reaping, with money
and machines.
But the brunt Of the business
bumps the railroads.
Face Giant Task.
It's up to them to accomplish the
actual physical movement of this
years whopping wheat crop. Kansas.
Oklahoma and Nebraska alone will
have 100000 bushels to be moved
by rail. And no more than 1900
bushels will go into one car. That
means $1,000 cars, or, at 80 cars
to a train, 1000 train loads of wheat
- H., -, -,
the next month. That in addition 10
the regular traffic
The elevators and mills of Kansas
City will absorb some 10000. 900 bush
els. over 26,000.00O bushels will go
by rail to Chicago, and thence by boat
TO the east. Millions more Of this
great tide of wheat will stream down
TO Galveston and New Orleans, and
east to Baltimore for export.
Another mighty flood of the grain
has its source in the three northern
states. the Dakotas and Minnesota.
which viii produce several hundred
million more bushels Ninety mill
lions Of bushels will go to the Twin
Cities. so millions to Duluth. Tran
shipped to freighters at this and 9TH
er Lake Superior ports. 10 million
bushels will pass the 800" canal. on
the way TO eastern mills. Other huge
rivers Of grain Will ow across the bor-
der into Canada. and west through
the Rockies TO Seattle for export.
Some will go all the way to New York
by rail.
Railroads Stagger.
What wonder the railroads stagger.
and train dispatchers swear? There
aren't enough carwheels on the rails
10 move ali that flood Of grain as fast
as the shippers demand.
For over a month the lines have
been storing up cars, in preparation
for the tremendous strain. Along the
100000 miles of track that tap the
grain fields, a quarter Of a million
empty cars are being held on sidings.
waiting for the wheat.
But that isn't enough Every road.
striving desperately to augment its
capacity is stealing all the cars Of
rival lines that il can grab
A car from an eastern railway
comes west loaded with merchandise
and isn't returned. The road that
holds it must pay the other road own
ing il 35 cents a day for the use of il
but what is 30 cents per car. when
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