Malvern daily record., 1917-10-03
RAILROADS HANDLING
 INCREASED TRAFFIC

Washington, D. C. Oct Fairfax Harrison, Chairman of the Railroads War Board, authorizes the following:
 Report just complied for the Rail- roads War Board indicate that the travelling public in general and the shippers in particular are giving the l finest kind of co-opera lion to the railroads in the handling of the in creased traffic that the war has pro- duced. What this cooperation means may be gleaned from these facts:
 Since May 1st, the railroads, aided by he loyalty and understanding of the public, have been able to reduce their passenger service by approxi- mately 25,00O,000 miles. This has re- ] leased thousands of train crews and locomotives for use in the freight service and cleared thousands of miles of track, thereby facilitating the movement of coal, food products and supplies needed by the Government.
 In addition to the foregoing sav- l ing of equipment and trackage the shippers big and small have rallied to the slogan, Make One Car Do the Work of Two" that a saving of close to half a million freight cars has been accomplished. This saving of freight cars has enabled the railroads to move approximately 9 percent more 1 freight since the war was declared thaa during the same period last l year.
 Intensive loading and general increased in the size of trade units" used by the varous industries has rendered possible the saving of car space.
 Cotton for instance, which was for merly moved in units of fifty bales. now moves only in units of 65 and 7o As there are 1S,000,0o0 bales to be moved by rail each season, the in- crease in the trade unit in this one commodity alone has produced ] saw E ing of anywhere from g, ,0o0 to l25,- GOO cars.
 Sugar, on which the carload min-
 
 imum from the South was formerly only 24,000 pounds per ear now moves only on 60,000 carload minimum.
 The producers of manufactured food products, especially the eanners, have also come to realization of the value of intense loading and are now loading virtually all of their ears to capacity.
 Coal, which has been loaded beyond capacity on most lines since the be- ginning of the war is also moving freely now, although labor trouble in some parts of the country is tend- ing to counteract the eqorts of the railroads to meet the abnormal de- mand for fuel. During the past month the supply of cars on the flake coal" lines has been increased'25 per cent and there has been some increase in the movement of bituminous coal to the lake ports, but it has not been proportinate to the increased supply of cars as labor trouble has tended to decrease the mine production. Although excellent results have been achieved to date through the CO., operation of the shippers, the travel ing public and the railroads, it will be necessary for all concerned to exert renewed efforts as the abnorm- at demands upon the railroads in the movement of both troops and sup plies is constantly increasing, while the securing of the new equipment is vitually impossible.
 From now on, 2,5O0 cars daily will be required Fby the government to move food and supplies to the men in training at the National Army, Ma tional Guard and other encampments while the demand of the allies for ears to carry export goods to the seaports will be practically doubled.
 All of this additional traffic must be moved by the railroads although they have only 3 per cent more equipment than they had at this time last year.