The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-11-07
SECRET AIRY OF.
 WAR EXPLAINS
 DELAY OF MAIL
Baker Speaks of the Tremel. dous War Task of
 Railroads.

In 1915 United States railroad fregiht service was equivalent to carrying 274,0oo,O00,0o0 tons of freight one mile.
 In 1917 they will carry 44o,ooo,- 000,0000 tons one mile, or an in- crease of 166,oOo.o 100000 tons.
 This increase alone is more than 35 per cent. greater than the entire tonnage in one year of all the rail- roads in Great Britain, France, Ger many, Austria and Russia.
 Is your train late, your letter de- layed, your freight shipment some where in America ?''
 Blame 1t on the war.
 The nation of 1O0,000,000 people in ordinary times keeps busy 6s3 rail- roads with a mileage of 260, ,0Oo miles, 1,75o,000 employees and about 2,500,- 900 freight cars.
 Trains are the busy shuttles that weave the fabric of the nations com merce.
 Suddenly in the war, with but a three per cent. increase in equip- ment, the railroads are required to take on an added business equal to that of Great Britain, France, Ger many, Austria and Russia.
 There are the vastly increased ship ments to our allies. There is the carrying of supplies to GA army can tonments and training fields. There was the task of carrying all the ma terfa1s for their construction, 16 of them as large as cities of 10000 each.
 The railroads have had to carry over 750, 1000 members of the National Army and the National Guard, re- quiring 18.5o0 passenger cars, 1,5o0 sleepers, 1000 baggage cars and 4,500 freight cars
 It has been necessary to keep a steady flow of iron ore to the great steel plants and to. carry more coal. than usual.
 All service dependent upon the rail- roads may seem slower and is slower, to the ordinary man, but the rail- roads are getting more out of their rolling stock and men than ever be- fore.
 The roads merged themselves into what is practically one big continental system. They pooled their rolling stock and coal shipments.
 They found themselves unable to get more cars and engines, so they T age per day of freight trains and by co-operation of shippers greatly in- creased the load on each car.
 They increased the speed with which cars were un1oaded and cut down passenger, mail. and express trains
 This enabled the railroads to give service as if they had added ITS, 900 freight cars, an increase of 30 per cent, and 16.625 locomotives, an in- crease of 25 per cent.
 The reader will say, .sFine! But why doesn't the public get the ben- eft in better service?''
 The tracks and equipment are used in the following order:
 Flirst-The government is given prd- ority in the shipment of raw mate rials, supplies and men.
 Second Shipments for our allies are expedited.
 Third Such vital things as coal and iron ore are speeded where they are needed.
 Then ordinary commerce is given a whack. There is a limit to which tracks iand terminals can be used. Hence the congestion outside of New York, Chicago, St. Iouis-ai1 the big arilroad centers. j.
 Those in authority say there has never been a time when the hun- dreds of thousands of railway em- ployes worked so hard and so long. A scarcity of labor has been in-, creased by the dispatch of nine reg iments of railroad men to France to run the railroads of that country.
 The railroads have often been the target of deserved criticism, but in the present period they have drawn praise from one not given to eulogies unless deserved Secretary of War Baker.