The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-22
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

coal situation, I tackled the railroad end of It first and as I said in former ar ticle it opened many new avenues of thought to me.
 Now l got a glimpse into the inside operations of the roads leading into Bir- mingham and they are typical of roads leading into other cities, with the diff ference which is the natural result of varying sections.
 It is mighty easy for the laymen who finds his train delayed or a shipment of freight slow in arriving to arraign the poor way in which the railroads are run. have been guilty of it myself. I dare say you who read this have often done 1 it yourself. It is natural, and yet I am sure that if you could sit for half day in the office of the superintendent and see what he is hourly up against that you would be a bit more modest in in dieting the management as being wholly inefficient.
 l have been great traveller, and know all about those who put up the Eu- ropean railroads against the American ones, but I infinitely prefer to travel on those in my native land, and I believe that OUT American railroaders are the best on earth. I hold no brief for the railroads. in fact, I have always taken the peoples side, but it has not blinded me to the truth that the country owes much to the daring of the men who put their money into great railroad schemes to develop the country.
 I confess that the life of such a man as James J. Hill thrills me. He was an empire builder He may have made mill lions. I am not here to pass on his methods but I am here to say that be- cause he had vision and courage his roads pierced the plains and crossed rivers and climbed mountains until they found the sea, and that all along cities sprang up and the lands were filled with happy homes. The great pioneer railroad magnates were men built in a generous mould.
 I have always been for the men who were developers and used their roads to minister to the needs of the communi- ties through which they passed, and have been against the ones who used railroads as football of politics or pawn to be used in Wall street opera
 
 profited by some of the roads serving it and been retarded by others, but I am not going to open an old sore.
 
 I had heard that men were rated in Dunn or Bradstreet. It was a familiar thing that used to come up daily when I Was connected with a local bank as it's attorney. and had to look up the com mercial rating of men, when it fell to my lot to try and enforce collections But it was new to me when a railroad superintendent began to talk to me about the rating of trains He said in bad weather WIG have to cut the rat ing of trains He pulled out a schedule and opposite each train on the road was
 
 and such a load I found out that this load varies not only on different roads, but on the same road: Some of the freights on some of the roads haul from 800 to 1500 tons. while one road comes in from the north with 5000, but cuts it down to 20oo tons when it goes south. Now, am getting at one Of the things which has made the managers sit up at night during the recent cold snap.
 The ratings on all the trains were cut This meant lighter loads if schedules were made. It called for more motive power, and required extra crews. The policy of roads, however, differ. Some when freight piles up in the yards over load and go slower, while others tighten the load and maintain the regular speed. I am trying to lead up to the freight con gestion which led the President to take over the roads. The war demands over- taxed the equipment of the roads and this, together with the storms and the cold, brought things to head.
 
 We all know that the transportation system broke down. We all know that in spite of the Herculean efforts of the men called upon to unravel the tangle of moving the tied-up freight that under the old method it was impossible. I am not here trying to enter into the merits of the case. Wiser men are busy it. For the while we will have to suspend judgment as to the causes which brought about the crisis. I am not trying to fix the blame either upon the railroads or the government.
 The hour had come for heroic action and the President, as some think, just "cut through the knot which the gov ernment had tied" It had passed the yond the trial stage A bigger question arose than the judicial settlement of combinations regulation. Freight was damned on side tracks in terminals, and wharves, and our own men and our allies were suffering for munitions and for food and couldn't wait. We went to bed one night with the railroads in the hands of the railroad managers and we woke up to find them under government control,
 Yes, the President is sailing on un- charted waters, or for better smile he is venturing in no mans land with one Of the countrys greatest enterprises. He showed wisdom in the selection of