The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-03
George c. Crawford Calls Attention to Seriousness
 of the Situation
CARELESS LOADING
 GIVEN MUCH BLAME
Tennessee Company Statement Brings Out Some Striking Facts-Pres- Nent Freight Movement
 Not Abnormal

George Gordon Crawford, president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company, calls attention to the nation wide shortage of cars and points out that great relief can be secured by more careful loading.
 The following data on conditions which apply to the south as well as other sections are furnished The Age-Herald from the offices of the Tennessee com pany:
 "The great shortage of cars that the shipping public is afflicted with generally throughout the country, is especially acute in the Greater Pittsburg district today.
 ''The scarcity of cars is interfering with the operation of the blast furnaces, steel works and mills generally, and with the early approach of the opening of navga- ton on the lakes, when the demand for equipment to supply mines with cars for lake coal will be increased, and the in- creased number of cars to handle the greatest movement of iron ore that the country has ever seen those in touch with the situation appreciate that the car supply will be a very serious prob- lem
 'The question of solving this problem would be very simple one if we could turn back 10 years and apply the meth ods of today to the traffic of 10 years ago. but this is impossible While there have been some great strides made in the adoption of modern equipment of much larger capacity, and improved methods for heavier loading of cars the increased volume of traffic that the rail- roads are confronted with today has far exceeded the most advanced plans of the railroads to provide adequate facli- ties for the natural increase in the gen. eral business.
 SITUATION NOT ABNORMAL
 Some people look upon the present de- mands upon the railroads as abnormal and the heavy volume of traffic as a movement of temporary character, while, as a matter of fact, the periodical boom in business that takes place in this coun- try every decade, with more or less reg uiarity, was a little late this time and was naturally stimulated by the Euro pean demand. There can be no question but what the business has come to stay and will keep on rolling up bigger and bigger until the railroads will be abso- 1utely blockaded with traffic in every di- rection, unless there is something done by the real shippers who are responsible for the congested condition at the At lantic seaboard and in New England to- day.
 Throughout this vast country, there are thousands of concerns that are trying to supply something or other for Europe at very high prices, and the conditions of sale are f. o. b. cars at point of shipment, so that as soon as a minimum carload is loaded, and the bill of lading issued, it is taken to the bank and the shipper gets his money; he cares very lit tie about what becomes of the shipment or when the real consignee gets it. In other words, the embargoes that have been placed by the eastern trunk lines are only enforced because the shipping public has attempted to use freight cars as storehOuSeS.
 LESS THAN CARLOAD
 "There is another peculiar thing about the embargoes that have been placed and are in effect today, that they do not apply to less than carload ship ments, the most unremunerative traffic that the railroads have, so that less than carload shipments can keep on contribut- ing to congestion and the abuse of cars in the midst of the embargoes that are placed to relieve the situation
 If the railroads throughout the west could take up the question of embargoes and absolutely stop the promscuous load ing of cars until definite arrangements had been made at the seab card for ex- porting the specific shipments, there would be a chance for the ships that are sailing from New York to go forward with full cargoes instead of sailing as they are compelled to do today, frequent ly with only part of load.
 ''In other words, it is the heavier load ing of cars that everybody engaged in the shipping of freight should be in- terested in and contribute their part to- ward utilizing cars to their fullest ca pacity
 RESULTS OF HEAVIER LOADING
 Tn this connection it is gratifying to state that F shipping companies of the United States Steel corporation during the year of 1915, showed an average car load of 77000 pounds per car. This is almost unbelievable, when it is realized that the average carload on all railroads throughout the United States on all traf- fic, including the steel traffic referred to, was only 42,000 pounds per loaded car or an average of 5000 pounds per car less than the record made by the shipping companies of the United States Steel cor poration
 ''The F shipping companies referred to increased the average carload on out bound shipments during the year 1915 only 1900 pounds per car, affecting an actual saving of 26,5s3 cars, as compared with the loading TOT the year lSl4, when the aV- craze was 75,20O pounds per loaded car
 According to the interstate commerce reports compiled for the fiscal year 1915, the average haul per ton of revenue freight throughout the country of the in- dividual railway was 163 miles, and the loaded freight cars per train was "A cars.
 ''On this basis, the railroads throughout the United States were saved 4333,029 car miles, or a saving of 1S0543 train miles. The 26,5S3 cars saved means that these cars were in other service, and accord ing to the statistics compiled by the in- terstate commerce commission, the aver age freight revenue was 15.32c per car mile, so that the actual saving of the 265S3 fewer cars used resulted in in- reased earnings to the railroads of $663- S2O, without any increased operating ex- penses.
 LITTLE CHANGE IN CAPACITY
 It might appear at first as though the adoption of modern equipment of larger capacity was responsible for this great showing, but there was very little change in the capacity of cars in the two years that are compared; it is rather the re- suit of a persistent determination to util- ize all cars to their fullest capacity
 During the last four years, the same 12 companies have affected saving of 165, 696 cars through the heavier loading of equipment.
 'The shippers, consgnees, and the rail- roads have been greatly benefited in the larger number of cars switched and ,,oiobad to cav nOthjrer of the great cav