Bisbee daily review., 1917-11-16
NEW RULES WILL BE ENFORCED IN
 ALL RAIL LINES
Non-Essentials Will Be Elm !bargoed on the Transports iton Lines of the Country
 Within Next Few Weeks
tBy Review Leased Wire.l

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15.-Denial of rail transportation ro more than 800 commodities classed as non-essential was recommended to the government today by the railroad board. At the same time the board pu. out a state ment declaring the country's railways at the present rate of increase in tIaf- : fic will be unable to meet demands that will be made upon them this win i ter.
 The commodities included in the rec ommendation were not made public.
 "The course of developments" said | the statement, written by Fairfax Har- rison, chairman of the board, ''if fore { ing those responsible for the railways operation to anticipate that probably i they will become unable to provide transportation for all the classes of commodi ies which they have been moving. The time may almost be here when it will be necessary to disting- uish in railway transportation between things that are essential and those that are not"
 Many Commodities.
 The list of commodities classed as non-essential was made up by con- mi tee of railroad traffic officers at the request of Robert s. Lovett, the gov ernment director of priority of trans portation. A copy was turned over ai- so to Fuel Administrator Garfield, who z sc 1os 4osl nf coal supplies to indus -ries not neces- sary to the public welfare. The list contains 450 commodities whose trans portation, it is declared, could be dis pensed with without any great mcon- yenience to the public and seventy-five which it held the public could dis pense with but not without inconveni- ence.
 The inability of the railroads to move the traffic is due, the statement in the volume of freight and passen- ger business.
 Railroads Working. Statistics show" said the state ment, that in the months of April August, inclusive-the first five mon:hs of the war, our railroads handl- ed 16 per cent more freight traffic than in the same months of 1916. The traf- fic handled in these five months was 50 per cent greater than moved in the same months of 1915 and exceeded the total traffic moved in any year prior to 1904.
 Perhaps the most remarkable igur- es are these. regarding the movement of coal. In the six months from May to October there were moved 150,000 more carloads of anthracite than in the same months of 1916, an increase of IS per cent and 751,0OO more cars of bituminous and Ignite, also an IS per cent increase. A total of 116,000 carloads of freight had to be moved to the national army and national guard camps.
 Freight Congestion.
 'The railroads are moving a freight trajc surpassing any ever before known and are doing it with almost no greater facilities than they had two years ago and under conditions which materially prevent them from increas- ing their facilities.
 "The railways this year have had to handle the largest passenger business ever known. In addition they trans ported between August first and No vember twelfth, 100000 troops. in- volving the use of 2,75O special trains"
 If the non-essential commodities are eliminated, says the statement, the railroads without doubt can move all commodities required by the govern ment for war purposes and by the peo- pie for subsistence.