The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-01

could be supplied immediately, surflclent ocean going tonnage would be made avail able tp rush food to the allies and thus save the day.
 You will observe that the dispatch stated that 5o0,O00 tons less than the { amount promised for the month of De- cember had been delivered in December, 1917. The railroads were. until December 2. 1917, exclusively in the hands of their private owners; they were taken over on that date by the government.
 There was but one way to get the nec- essary food supplies to the seaboard, and that was to do one of the most dras-
 tic things ever done in the history of American raflroading, send empty cars from the east to the west with all pos sible speed and regardless of cost. and bring them back as swift as possible i loaded with the necessary food supplies. 1 The greatest heresy in railroad man. l agement is to haul a car empty when i it can be loaded. But if empty cars had been held in the east long enough to take ! the loads that were offered, they would have been delayed in the east as well | as at destination. where the loads had l to be removed. These delays would of l themselves have been fatal. It was nec- 1 essary to absolutely arrest the domestic commerce of America until this emer- i sency could be met, and no authority 1 except that Of the federal government l could have met the emergency.
 ORDERS ARE ISSUED
 l issued immediately to MT. Aishton,
 the regional director at Chicago, the fol- 1 lowing order:
 "On account of the vital necessity of | gathering and forwarding immediately i all available grain and grain products
 for our armies abroad and the allies, you will for the present give preference and 1 priority in the furnishing of box cars 1 for grain and grain products from the l states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minneso- | ta North and South Dakota, Montana, | Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri and 1 Oklahoma with the exception of less car l load merchandise, print paper and paper ] pulp. The regional director, eastern railroads, has been instructed to rush empty box cars to western lines in pref | erenee Please secure the cooperation of 1 grain dealers, farmers and interested communities to facilitate the accumula- ton and prompt loading of all kinds of grain and have traffic representatives | and station agents instructed to aid in | this work
 A copy of this order was furnished to | Regional Director A. H. Smith in New | York, with directions to move promptly | all empty box cars suitable for grain loading from the eastern to the western l region.
 At that time the Pennsylvania railroad and all the other trunk line railroads | were so congested that no satisfactory l movement of empty box cars westward could be secured over their lines. Re. i gional Director Smith of New York had
 with unusual skill and ability kept the | great New York Central artery open in
 spite of blizzards and other serious ob- 1 stacles. He attacked the problem with energy, and a continuous stream of 1 empty box cars began to flow to Chica- i go, where they were taken by Regional l Director Aishton and rushed into each ] grain producing centre loaded with all possible dispatch, and rushed back to l the Atlantic seaports with such effect 1 that within 30 days the emergency had
 been met and the crisis was over.
 COMPLIMENTS RAILROAD MEN | l cannot pay too great a tribute to 1 Carl R. Gray, director of operations at 1 Washington; A. H. Smith. regional direc-
 tor at New York; R. H. Aishton, re- gional director at Chicago, and to the of-
 ficers serving under them and to the l army of railroad men and women l throughout the eastern and northwest l ern territory, who, with patriotism
 courage and devotion unparalleled, stood i by their posts throughout the storm and
 blizzards of that frightful winter suffer
 ing from exposure and overwork, bu!
 never complaining, and going forward
 with a heroism which matched that ol our gallant men in the trenches, and
 which, joined with theirs, brought vic. tory to American arms and glory to the American flag.
 This successful operation under govern
 ment control of the railroads saved the war for America and the allies, because
 failure to meet the food crisis at that time would have been an irretrievable
 disaster This great operation was car ried through regardless of cost. To hau
 empty cars is always a costly and no
 a remunerative thing, and that is why
 every railroad man abhors the unneces
 this incident illustrates what had to bt repeatedly done during the period of fed
 eral control of the railroads, their op-
 eration for the purposes of the war and
 to win the victory over the Kaiser re-
 gardless of cost If it had not been fol
 war emergencies of this character, which
 had to be met and which it was the
 purpose of federal control to meet the
 $2O0,0O0,000 deficit in railroad operations
 for the year 1918 could have been turned
 into surplus. That deficit was ere
 ated in part by the expense of handling
 the empty box cars I have described to
 save the allies from disaster and de- feat in Europe. Wasn't it worth the
 whole $200,O0O,000 deficit of the year 191,
 to save the allied cause and to gain tho
 ultimate triumph over our enemies? A ho tbo iSti e;,