The herald., 1917-12-27
RAILROADS SOLD
BODILY FOR WAR
Equipment of Once Promising
Lines on Way to France.
JUNK Brings Fancy PRICES
England and France. Building Thou
sands Of Miles Of Lines Behind
Trenches, Make Far and Wide
Search for Material.

II the war has done nothing else for
certain Wall street men who have been
playing the railroad game-and the
chances are that 1t has performed
many miracles for them-it has Gre
ated a bullish market for any old rail-
roads they may have had on hand for
some time, observes a writer In New
York Sun. The long and hungry arm
Of war has reached out into Amer
lea and Canada in search Of sur
plus and unused railroads and the
plains and junkyards Of the two coun-
tries have been ransacked Of the ma
terials required in France.
AS result the man who was wise
enough to hold onto his old railroad
or who was compelled to retain pos
session of the property because there
was nothing else for him to do, is
thanking his lucky stars for being able
to unload, at fancy war prices, the
veriest railroad junk.
Old Roads in Demand.
One Of the thousand and one indus
trial romances brought about by the
war has been this keen demand for
old railroads. England and France
have been working overtime building
hundreds and thousands Of miles of
railroad lines behind their trenches
along the western front. Naturally
they have been compelled to go far
and wide in search of the material
for these supply lines, inasmuch as
the steel mills Of the two countries
have been working "a hours a day
making shells and supplying NUM-
lions.
The tremendous demand for steel
rails and rolling stock for the allied
armies in France caught the steel
trade unprepared, and rather than wait
for months for the rail equipment fac
tories to catch up England has gone
into the world market in search of old
railroads which could be dismanted
and transplanted to France.
Hundreds of miles of railroad have
disappeared completely from the face
of the North American continent, only
to appear a few months later in east
ern France. Engines, cars, rails,
bridges, ties-everything real and tan
gfble in the way of railroad property
has been running the submarine block
ade for months, and the end Is not In
sight.
Successful 'NWar Bride"
Junk dealers, or waste material men,
as they call themselves now that war
prosperity has made their business one
of the most successful "war brides,
have been scampering about the coun.
try buying up all the decrepit railroads
they could get their hands on. And
as "junk" the road properties have
been sold at prices 300 and 400 pei
cent above the "junk" market Of foul
years ago.
Within recent months approximately
1000 miles of Canadian and American
railroads, including all rolling stocl
worth salvaging, have been snapped W
and prepared for shipment abroad
Even hungry junk dealers from japan
have appeared In the market
Scattered about the middle west arr
numerous relics of the days wheI
railroad promoters scourged tie coun
try like a plague of locusts. Little
railroad lines were built, the public
mulcted of its hard-earned dollars, ant
soon the railroad system ceased t
exist.
Railroads Were Failures.
One of these purchased was the Chi
cago, Anamosa & Northern, 36-mil
line which had been operating In north
eastern Iowa. Another short line Il
southern Iowa, about % miles long
soon passed into the hands Of Junk
dealers and was then resold to agent
for the English government. Severa
lines of this character, some Of whic
only gave up the struggle within tn
last few months, were added to tn
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