Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-24
URGES MERCHANTS
TO CUT DELIVERIES
Ross P. Andrews Advises Use
OF Teams to Haul Freight
From Railroad Yards.
SUGGESTS ONE A DAY

curtailment of deliveries among thci-
customers to one day by all stores, in
order that men and teams may be re-
leased to haul cons;gnments away from
railroad freight yards, was the first
specific recommendation made today By
Ross p. Andrews. chairman of the COM
mittee named Saturday night by Com
missioner Brownlow to cope with the
freight jam in Washington.
Mr.. Andrews said he has set the eX-
| ample by notifying his customers that
after January l his firm. the r. 2. An
drews Paper Company. will deliver but
once day. He said that after thsr
date all deliveries would be- made in
| sections other than the northwest in
the morning, and only orders taken be-
fore o'clock the previous day would
| be assured of delivery the following
| morning. Orders for the afternoon de-
livery, in the northwest section. Will
be taken up to IL O'Clock.
This recommendation already has
been urged strongly by the commercial
economy board, Council of National De-
fense. as a war economy measure. Mr..
Andrews said. and it is doubiy impera-
tive that it be adopted now in WASH
inguon as a measure to help the freight
congestion.
The drayage companies are heavily
burdened." added Mr. Andrews. "and
merchants themselves must seek to as
sumo some of the respons ibility for
getting their consignments from the
yards"
Appeals to Business Men.
In addition, Mr.. Andrews appealed to
business men to receive freight from
am. to pm, instead of taking 1t only
between and o'clock, as many do ut
present.
Ultimately, he stated. he believes that
appointment of a freight director viii
be found the only solution to the entire
question of freight shipment distribu-
tion in Washington.
The situation today is bad" he said.
why such a director is needed is in
dicated by the presence in the yards
here of twenty cars of paper for tho
government printing office, which, Off
cials there state. cannot be taken away
today or tomorrow No men can be
found to volunteer to haul it. A freight
director would order such conSignment5
hauled away.
The entire committee will hold its first
meeting Friday night at the Commercial
Club. In the meantime Mr.. Andrews and
Charles J. Columbus, secretary of the
committee, are gathering all the iu-
formation available about the present
freight situation in Washington. They
are getting all the data available from
freight agents of the roads entering
Washington, as well as from merchants
themselves.
Letter to Mr.. Brownlow
In reply to newspaper criticisms that
government contractors were to blame
for much of the delay in hauling away
consignments. the George A. Fuller
Company, which is doing much govern
ment construction work, wrote to COM
missioner Brownlow as follows, and
sent copy of the letter to Mr.. An
drews:
while freight consigned to our COM
pany has caused complaint on the part
of Mr.. Bowie of the Pennsylvania rail-
road, yet this material was not ordered
by US. does not belong to us and we
have been grossly imposed upon We
invite thorough investigation, in
which we Will give our hearty co-opera-
ton. We are not only asking YOU to
go into the facts before condemninc US
but we have also asked the commission
on car service. which. we understand
has governmental, authority. to make an
investigation, in so far as no doubt
they have authority to call officially for
records and sworn testimony to inyes:-
tIgate the matter fully, and to take
such steps as they deem proper to ,,re-
vent recurrence of this condition and
to properly penalize those at fault.
Unload Day and Night.
Our company have unIoaded cars
both by day and by night with aae-
quate equipment. and in order to cx1-
pedite the unloading we have a reg
ular organization to spot cars i,nme.
diately that they are placed for un-r
loading. so that our time for unload
ing material that belongs to US Will
show very high average
We have not only unloaded material
that belongs to us, but We have un-
loaded and stored approximately
100000 feet of lumber that came con-
signed TO us, but that was never or
dered by us, and really does NOT be-
long to US, but which we have offered
to buy, if necessary, simply to relieve
the car congestion, all of which we
can prove.
I'VE are inclined to think that Ger
tain lumber interests in the south have
taken advantage of this large order
OF lumber as placed with them for our
use through the government agencies.
to secure movement of large stocks of
lumber in excess of quantities ordered
by the government officials
Has Plan for Relief.
Ir letter to the Board of Trade,
II. L. wilkins of the Wilkins-Rocers
Company, Inc. of Georgetown, express
ed the belief that a working agreernent
between the railroads in regard 10 the
bringing of cars into Washington
would go far toward relieving the
freight situation here.
There is a big waste of abor and
equipment in unloading cars reads
the letter. AT present we are receiv-
ing grain on the Pennsylvania railroad
in the Jersey avenue yard. while our
mill is in Georgetown. 1t takes from
three to four teams with three extra
men day to unload a car, which could
be handled with only one man in three
or four hours when placed on our sid
ing an Georgetown.
In another part the letter states: 1T
quite frequently happens that receivers
have cars punched in transit. and one
way TO release the cars when they ar
rive so punched would be for the mer-
chants in the same line TO help each
other
The letter was referred to the COM
mittee on freight congestion and local
transportation, of which Samuel J.
Prescott is chairman.