Gunnison news-champion., 1917-12-28
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
OF RAILROAD LINES
Rial Railroad Management Must
Cohe-TheTe lust BE Service In
stead OF Calls .or Higher Rates
Says Henry Ford

1t the opening of the hearing be-
for the Congre .onal Committee on
! raE5p pOrtation Iroblens, on Tues
day, December llth, Chairman Adam
sO..ot the House Interstate Commerce
d lgd that President Wilson will
undoubtedly have to take over the
=. roads of the United States and
0, ate them a. a unit during the
p. .Od OF the war, and probably hold
TIN after the war until Congress can
?. a.lde some plan for management
ar efficient operation Along this
SAM line, Henry Ford makes the fol-
long statement:
Altcr asserting that a new motto
ser.Ice- must be adopted by the rail-
roads, Mr. Ford says:
ne Railroad situation is like a
ma0 who has been so busily engaged
f. thirty years in working on the new
npic. Of an invention that he does not
5, what is going on. Now he looks
" only to find that his model is out
o. satc and not good enough.
Thru the proxy system, control of
o. ral.roads has passed largely TO the
ba~kcrs living in New York and other
L. p cities. These banker managers
" ike factory owner, who sits the
VIII time in the office without ever
gnog into the shop to see how the
" is being done.
hose bankers were busy in their
Of COS with stocks and bonds, COM
n IONS and syndicate arrangements,
b.. hoover saw them go to a point
OF .raEestion or railroad trouble to see
" . The trouble was with their rail-
~
'' An portation, like agriculture, and
m j acture is a basic industry Rail
rua4 management requires technical
ly aimed men who know how to run
errurs, machines, dig tunnels, and
d. su better equipment.
"Ior the last decade railroad presi-
do and even operating officials
ha." been talking like their banker
m agors about increases IN freight
ra' and security values, instead of
d, eng their thoughts and energies
10 mnating the waste, and improv-
in rTuipment.
Give Figures on
Equipment Weight.
The freight car weighs as much as
til Dad it carries. Generally it trav-
ell ,wo-thirds full and comes back
empty
Passenger trains weigh fifty to $50
tim as much as the passengers in
then. A Pullman car, weighing co.
00O to $4,000 pounds, averages less
than 1000 pounds of passenger load.
Heavy cars require heavy engines,
hn.N-ia,. hY-ilr-az
strain in starting, and stopping, and
N suit in increased waste and deprecia-
tion.
"Four-fifths of railroad work today
is hauling the dead weight of its own
wastefully heavy passenger cars. This
is why the railroad presidents have so
h. I'd time to figure out freight and
passenger rates high enough on the 20
per cent of live load to cover the cost
Of hauling around this enormous dead
weight of so per cent.
Constantly appealing for Is per
cent increase to protect stocks and
bonds does not solve our transporta-
ton problems.
america is land of great dis
tances, and cheap, easy-travelling and
freight service are necessities. Our
greatest asset is our market of no.
100000 people.
"To make one model in great guam
titles is the best way to manufacture,
for broad market makes possible
high wages, low prices to the consum-
er and prosperous industry.
bookkeeping cannot solve this
problem. A management with a ma
tional policy, that knows what it
wants, can make steel, run engines,
dig tunnels, that can keep the peoples
interests before local or personal in
terests, is what we need.
"Such railroad leadership must be
protected against politics and wire
pulling. The benefits from such a
policy would be SO great, that all the
money that has been put into the rail-
roads in an honest way can easily be
paid off.
"To supplement our railroad system
we can build concrete roads that will
last hundreds of years with low up
keep charges"