Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-21

discussed the tanele In which they found
their freight. They reduced the freight
problem TO its simplest form. its elemental
unit--the car. They thought that " they
could make the car efhclent they msnt
handle more freight They appointed a COM
mission on car service for study and re-
port on the situation.
But they took another step which pre-
vented further aggravation OF the conges-
tion OF the gateways Of the East They
placed an embargo upon any railroad which
was suffering from congestion. II was for
hidden from receiving freight In the West
until the ships were ready to receive 1t at
tidewater. Thus would the congested rail-
road he forced to refuse freight and allow
II TO go to a competitor who had track facil-
tiles. Competition was thus eliminated, and
the freight went where II could be handled.
But the Commission on Car Service de-
veloped more ambitious work, II went into
those endless strings Of cars that were
blocking the terminals. II wanted to find II
they were performing their maximum serv-
ice. Its findings were revelations to the
railroad people themselves. The chief OF
these was the fact that the individual car
was carrying about half the freight that It
was capable Of carrying.
The terminals in tho East could not be
increased The cities were too closely built
about them. The car supply might not he
increased In time TO meet an emergency
that already existed. But IL twice the
freight could be put into a given number
of cars, the old capacity could we'll handle
the situation and any probable increase
The freight In any 1000 cars, for instance
might be put into soc. Then the freight
handled might be increased so per cent and
that increase In this case might be put into
! ESQ cars. Thus would $50 cars take care
Of SO per cent more freight than had for
| merly been handled by 1000.
INTERESTS POOLED
These conclusions had been reached wher
| in April last representatives of all the prin
! cipal railroads met In Washington ant
! passed resolution declaring themselves
! one 70" the winning of the war ant
! pooling their interests. IL would probably
have been necessary for the Government L
| have taken action that co-ordinated tn,
| railroads had they not themselves initiated
| that action. But the Government and th
! railroads came 20 work together as a re
suit of this resolution and through tn
| medium of the Council of National De
fense, of which they became a part through
the Railroads War Board created for tha
| purpose.
survey of the entire country woul
reveal the facts as to where cars were over
abundant and where they were bad
needed There were great numbers OF emr
ties, for example. in that region north c
Maryland and east of Indiana, which Is tn
great manufacturing section Of the natior
The industries of that region have bee
drawing unprecedented amounts of RAJ
materials from the South and West. The car
that brought this freight have not alway
found their way back to the point wher
they might he reloaded The Railroads VIZ
Board found these empty cars and issue
peremptory commands that they should
, sent tC the points in the nation where the
were most needed. The empty cars we,
put In motion. positive famine In cal
in the South was relieved and as a resu
that vast mass of lumber that went I'M
cantonments this month. most of whic
came from the South, could be moved wit
dispatch.
FREIGHT SPACE SAVED
But loading cars to capacity was four
| to be the great need of the railroad worl
: II was the solution of the nations freig
{ | problem 1nnumerable abuses had grow
, | up. The dealers of the nation had be-
> | offered reduced freight rates II they boug
in car load lots. The definition of n c
load lot was mostly made n generation az
When cars carried 10000 pounds a mil
: mum carload might have been 200
/. pounds. Then cars increased in size a
= came to hold $4,000 pounds o. even 140,0
pounds as some of them nvw do The mil
. mum accepted as car load increas
somewhat but not as rapidly as did I
cars. So 1t came about that cars we
loaded with freight that was nearly
i ways much less than they should carry.
d To meet the great emergency the Ra