The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-01-07
NATURALIZATION OF RAIL-
WAYS OF GREAT BRITAIN

] London, Jan. 7.-One of the most
quietly and successfully accom-
plished tasks of the war in England
was the naturalization of the rail-
ways of the kingdom. At last after
more than a year Of application to
detail. the chairman of the executive
committee in charge of the roads,
reports that the scheme sis working
as smoothly as if the lines no longer
had their own individuality.
This executive committee, which
sits continuously somewhere in
london" is the general staff of the
railway branch of the British gov
'ernment On behalf of the govern
ment, it has absolute control of rail-
ways. rolling stock, locomotives and
stats, including every mile of steam
road in Great Britain.
| The committee is the strongest
body oe railway experts ever brought
toge:her. 1t includes the managers
of nearly all the great railroads, to-
gether with a host of specialists and
technical experts specially drafted
for the purpose, under the chairman
ship of Sir H. A. Walker, head Of
the London and Southwestern lines.
Our policy of CONTROL" writes a
member of the committee, has been
not to supersede the normal man
agement of the roads, but to co-ordi-
nate the whole of the railways of
the country through several groups
into single system available in
stantly for all emergencies. The gen.
eral rights of the public are protect
ed by various special acts of Parlia-
ment
"The general staff controlling this
complex fabric of railways is so d.
vided that it is in session twenty
four hours of every day of the week.
In an instant, by a single order from
this nerve center, we could turn ev-
cry locomotive and car in Great
Britain out of private use to respond
to emergency demands of the war Of
fee.
"As / have said, the lines are
grouped, mainly along sectional
lines. and to correspond with the i'm
mediate requirements of army and
navy transport Each section is in
charge of officials selected from the
stats Of the roads represented in the
group, with suitable army represen-
tation
The demands of the war Office
have fallen differently upon differ
ent lines. In some cases ordinary
traffic has been largely demoralized
for considerable periods, while 9TH
err roads have been scarcely affected.
III d SiuSle Houtu Inc uIedI CdSlcIu,
for example, ran $40 special mill
tary trains with 10000 cars. The
Great Western in the same month
ran 1900 special trains on war bus
mess.
The Southwestern system, how
ev, has had to carry the greatest
burden of traffic The experience of
the South African war had taught
much of value to the officials of this
road, and they were foremost in or
ganizing the other lines for the pres
ent war. The enormous number of
troop and supply trains which this
system has operated successfully
has been a revelation even to the
war Office officials At times, the
rails from London 10 the coast have
been occupied by almost continuous
lines of trains, running just as close
together as safety would permit, or
binary train service being sand
| wicheG in wherever the demands of
the military left the slightest open
ing.
So excellently was the work of
this line done during the early Pc
riod of great pressure that the
chairman of the railway general
staff sent a special message of con-
graduation to the staff, expressing
thigh appreciation of the loyal and
patriotic manner in which the en-
ployes have carried out their oner-
Gus duties.