The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-08-17
"Scrambling" the Railroads.

A familiar epiTam, attributed TO the
late John PieTpont Morgan, is, you
cannot unscramble an egg" When ut
tered-and it was uttered, or written, by
somebody, if not by Mr. Morgan--it re-
ferred to the consultations in the rail.
road and business world which the gov.
eminent was seeking to break up. One
does not remember whether it was APP
piled specifically to the New England
transportation monopoly which was at
tempted by the New Haven railroad in
the days when Mr. Morgan dominated
the board Of directors of that company.
We have since seen that transportation
monopoly of New England, administered
in the public interest, is not necessarily
to be feared The railroad administra-
ton has adopted vigorously the "scram
bling policy New instances are coming
to light every day. So numerous and
pervasive are these consultations that
railroad men themselves are becoming
convinced of the unlikelihood Of a COM
plete resumption after the war Of the
methods Of separate and competing man
agements.
Within a fortnight a unified plan of
fespatching less than-earload freight to
points outside New England has gone
into effect in Boston, and similar plan
is now being worked out for Worcester,
Providence, Lynn and Springfield. Cars
are to be sent directly to destination and
will be despatched once, twice or three
times a week, or every day in some cases.
Under the new arrangement there viii be
no duplication of cars and the necessity
of handling freight at junction points
will be eliminated 1t is much as if the
three railroads serving Boston had taken
a map Of the country and cut it up into
sections, each railroad choosing the dis
tant territory which it could most con-
yeniently reach. Even though freight ls
accepted only once or twice week. it
win probably get TO its destination more
rapidly than otherwise, though in some
cases not perhaps SO rapidly as five
years ago, before the congestion and war
problems arose. So complete has been
the division of functions that the par
tieular freight house and even the door
for receiving the less-than carload lots
are designated. Assuming that the new
plan proves satisfactory, does it seem
likely that the railroads will ever 60
back to the promiscuous soliciting and
duplicated shipping of freight?
Within a few weeks freight houses in
several New England cities and towns
have been consolidated under single
management. At both Burlington, VT,
and White River Junction, VT, one
freight house has been eliminated, and at
Ware in this state the same plan failed
to 20 into effect at the lost moment only
because of some hitch in the arrange
ments. There is reason to believe that
similar consultations will be tried in
some Of the larger cities where freight
houses and freight yards and even pas
senger stations are conducted by rival
companies. At Montpelier, VT, all trains
are now to leave from the Central Yer
mont station, and one old station, used
by the Montpelier & Wells River rail
road, has been abandoned In that sec
ton Of Vermont there has been con
solidation of the operating personnels,
and Frederick c. Mayo, superintendent of
the st. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain,
has been intrusted with the added du-
ties Of superintendent of the Montpelier
& Wells River and the Barre x Chelsea.
If these arrangements prove beneficial
and disclose no drawbacks to Offset the
economies that can doubtless be effected,
is it likely that there viii be a return to
the expense OF separate organizations
after the war;
According to the Engineering News
Record there il an intention TO combine
terminal facilities TO a greater extent
than has been done. 1t is even said that
through trains Of the Central railroad of
New Jersey, the LaclIawanna, the Lehigh
Valley and the Erie, may be diverted to
the Pennsylvania station in New York