The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-09-24
over One Hundred Thousand Empties
Have Been Sent South to Pro-
tect Grain Move
ments.
WILL SAVE CONGESTION
Patriotic Efforts Made by the Trunk
Lines to Keep Business Nov
Ing During This
Time.

Fairfax Harrison, chairman OF the
railroads. war board, authorizes the
following:
Some conception Of the efforts
which the railroads of this country
are making to handle the tremendous
increase in freight traffic which the
war has produced may be cleaned
from report just compiled by the
commission on car service.
The report shows that during the
four months period between May l
and August 81. this year, l15,152
empty freight cars were ordered into
the south and southwest to protect
the movement of grain and other
products and assure the prompt de-
livery of the millions Of feet of lum-
Der needed by the government for
the environments and shipyards. Sew
eral thousand of these cars were
also used to facilitate the movement
of phosphate rock and other ma
terials needed in the manufacture of
munitions. The cotton carrying rail-
roads also received large consign-
ments Of "empties to enable them
and cottonseed movement.
Moved Regardless Of Ownership.
Most OF the cars moved into the
south and southwest are owned by
roads operating in other sections of
the country. They were moved, how
ever, regardless of ownership into
the districts where they were most
needed. The prompt compliance of
the roads owning them with the
orders of the commission on car ser
vice averted what might easily have
been one Of the worst freight con-
gestions in the history of the coun-
try, as the lines in the south and
southwest have been called upon to
transport an unexampled volume of
freight since the United States en-
tered the war.
The movement of lumber for COM
mercial purposes has been unusually
heavy and added to that has been
the governments demand for the
$4,000 carloads Of timber needed in
the construction Of the training
camps for the new national army and
the thousands of other carloads that
are being rushed from the southern
forests to the shipyards on the At
lantic coast,
Grain and Vegetable Traffic.
Coincident with the lumber move
ment, grain, melons, vegetables, and
other food products have created 4
demand for cars that would have
been impossible to meet if the rail-
roads of the country had not volun-
tarily agreed to merge their COM
petitive activities and operate as one
system during the period of the war.
This agreement made possible the
shifting of empty cars into districts
that would have been virtually buried
under the abnormal amount of freight
accumulated in them if the local lines
had not received help from their COM
petitors.
At the present time hundreds Of
empty cars are still being rushed into
the south to assure the prompt move
ment Of all government orders for
lumber. Hundreds of other "empties'
are going into the central states to
protect the grain crop. the transpor-
tation Of which is now being compli-
Gated by the fact that during the
next six weeks, when the grain move
ment will be at it's height, the rail-
roads will be obliged to run a large
number of special passenger trains to
carry the $4,000 citizen soldiers to
the environments.
Preparing to Move Stock.
Long trains of stock cars are also
moving into western Texas so that
the thousands of heads of cattle that
are threatened by the drought there
may be moved into more fertile pas
turage.
The railroads operating in Maine
will soon receive an extra consign-
ment Of empty cars to enable them
to handle the potato crop.
A summary of the roads that re-
ceived consignments of empty cars
from other roads during the four
month period ending August 81, to.
gether with the number of cars sent
to each, is as follows:
Alabama & vicksburg, $50; Ala
bama, Tennessee & Northern, 1912;
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fee, 500:
Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic, l.
275; Atlantic Coast Line, $500; Caro-
lima. Ciinchfield & Ohio, 500; Central
of Georgia, 2,400: Charleston & West
ern Carolina, ESQ: Chicago Great
Western. 1900; Chicago & Alton.
1925; Chicago. Findlay & Fort
Wayne, 200; Chicago & Eastern Hi.
nois, 1895; Chicago e. North West
ern, 500; Chicago. indianapolis &
Louisville, ESQ; Chicago. Peoria &
st. Louis, 200; Chicago, Rock Island
G. Pacific. $500: Chicago, ST. Paul.
Minneapolis G. Omaha, 1900; Cincin-
natl, Bluffton & Chicago, 16; Cincin-
natl, indianapolis e Western. 1900:
Delaware & Hudson, IS; Fort Worth
and Denver City, lis; Georgia, 575;
Georgia & Florida, 575: Georgia,
Florida & Alabama. 30; Georgia
Southern C Florida. $50; Gulf Coast
lines, 2,115; Gulf, Florida & Alabama,
275: Gulf, Mobile & Northern, $50: