The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-24

derlip is writing for The
News. The next will APP
pear Saturday.
| II there were nothing else the matte
| with Europe except the breakdown o
railway transportation. most OF the Eu
ropean nations would still be facini
+! a problem OF gigantic proportions. tn
/ carly settlement OF which In not onl,
essential to the resumption OF indus
trial life, but is actually essential L
maintaining life itself in some OF tn,
large centers. Hundreds OF Thousands
Of people have starved to death in tn,
last twelve months In Europe. There
Is competent authority for such a state.
ment This terrible catastrophe hal
only in part been caused by lack oil
food. In an important measure the
disaster was directly traceabie to the
breakdown in transportation. to the
physical inability to move stores OF ex-
isting food into localities where people
we're dying OF starvation. At one time
there were hundred unloaded cargoes
OF food In the harbor OF Marseilles. held
there because preceding cargoes were
blocking the lines OF transportation.
The railroads OF Spain were, on the
whole, In much better condition than
[ expected to find them. In France the
system has wonderfully stood the test
OF the enormous movement which has
been imposed upon 1t. But equipment
Is deficient. and much OF II unbelievably
ancient. Added 10 that is the ineffect-
ual system OF handling the traffic One
OF our high officers described the dis
patching OF a freight car. say from
Brest TO Paris. as comparable with
dropping a letter In a mail box. Some
time, presumably. the car would arrive
at its destination, but in the meantime
there was no record OF its whereabouts.
No matter how important 1t was to
have IL reach its destination, no way
existed to trace 1t, and 1t might get
lost on side track for month. The
situation in France or even in Belgium
by no means illustrative OF the situa-
ton further east. 1t Is true that In
Belgium. the Germans took up practi-
cally all double track even on the prin-
cipal main through lines and have left
but single track for traffic; Literally
hundreds OF masonry bridges have
been destroyed in Belgium and northern
France. 1t is easy to say that oil this
damage can be readily repaired, and
SO u can In time.
My point is that It has not been re-
paired and at the present moment the
tremendous handicap resulting from an
inability promptly to move freight would
alone be an enormously disorganizing
hoSbOA " thS AfNhGtia oi bic Va ehSSS
countries.
Equipment DiIapldated.
As one goes further east, however,
the transportation system Is found to
be far more seriously disorganized. II
is true that there has now been estab-
lished some through services that might
be taken to indicate return to normal
conditions. One can travel
from Paris to Warsaw. or Belgrade.
Bucharest or Constantinople. When
IL comes to transporting freight through
the whole district east and south of
Germany and of old Austria Hungary,
the situation assumes serious aspects.
Serbia was swept almost clean of all
equipment. was told that
Mt the date OF the armistice there were
but nine locomotives left in Serbia.
The situation is bad in Greece as well
as in Rumania, CZecho- Slovakia, Po-
land and Lithunia. In Russia the loco
motives seem to have been run until
they ceased TO function and then were
deserted, little If any effort being made
at repairs, and II is here that there are
the most notable examples OF starva-
ton and ample food supplies not dis
family separated.
I have the highest possible authority |
for the prediction that the food stu |
alton will be more serious In the spring |
and summer of 1920 than It has been |
serious that, taking into account the |
breakdown Of transportation. II will be |
impossible to prevent another horror |
of starvation even II the ports of Eu- |
one are amply supplied with food.
am not arguing that this whole situ- |
alton cannot be readily put to rights. |
but do say that no substantial start |
has yet been made to do so, that even |
no systematic plan has yet been de- |
veloped. and that under the very best of |
conditions that will consume a great |
Zeal of time. In the interval the |
situation presents a |
most serious obstacle to the distribu- |
loudly difficult the restarting of in |
iustry. Among all of Europe's needs, |
none is more poignant than the reha- |
of her railroads.
Locomotive 81 Years Old.
Occasionally l had an interview that |
was so rich in material and that was |
given under such circumstances that |
could make very brief running notes. |
find in my notebook, which indeed is |
1 lapentably scrappy one. the notes of
m interview l have had with a man |
who has made great success on two
continents and knows thoroughly from
personal experience the railroad condi- |
lions in America, England and in Eu-
rope, and who has rendered distin- |
yuished service throughout the war. My |
talk with him ranged over many SUBJ
jects, Portions of the interview would |
logically fall in various chapters of this |
book, but perhaps it will be as inter- |
esting and readable to try TO give an
outline of what he had to say without |
any attempt at logical arrangement.
In France the railroad tariff Is fixed |
by law. II is now admittedly too low, |
but there has been an indisposition |
to increase 1t, just as there |
has been an indisposition materially to |
increase taxes. The result is sad |
deficiency in income and a serious de- |
cline in the physical condition of the |
rolling stock. The French railroads |
seem never to scrap rolling stock. l |
have seen locomotive regularly rum
ming on a French railroad that bore
the date of 1857 on its nameplate. That |
locomotive would be in a museum in |
America. Its boiler tubes were all OF |
copper. 1t is today in regular opera
tion. The way in which France has |
me wonder II Americans have not gone |
mad on rebuilding railroads.
Economical as is the management |
Of the French lines, their income at the |
present too low rates Is not sufficient
to keep up properly their physical con-
dition. The allies have paid the Nord
railway three million pounds on account
and that is all that has kept the road
going. The finances of all the French
roads are bad.
I'm France a tremendous amount
will have to be spent to restore the
railroads to a good physical condition.
The problem is by no means insur-
but France will have TO put
up rates, Everything that a railroad
buys has gone up and there must be
an advance in the price of what il has
to self II the French railroad mana
gers would only introduce some kind of
efficiency, II they would learn to do
some things in the way they have
seen them done under American and
English direction, their position would