The Idaho Republican., 1919-01-07
EDITOR SUGGESTS
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grant the raise. The hostility to the
roads kept them from borrowing
money necessary to make improve
ments. and when the war came on we
were suffering from insufficient rail-
road facilities and bad management
of what we had. We were spending
enough money on them to have good
wages for employees, and good SER
vice and good equipment, but we
were wasting much money. The
same can be said of our county roads
and road management, but not many
people are yet able to see the remedy.
Railroads We're Losing the War
One year ago our factories were
running at full capacity, and the
railroads were ch0ked with raw ma
terials seeking transit to factories
and with war materials seeking tran
sit to tidewater. Ships were loaded
for French and Italian ports, and the
allies everywhere were shouting for
war materials to hold back the Hun.
In America we were chOked with
everything they were dying for across
the seas, and the two things that
stood most in4the way Of relief were
coal and transportation. II trans
portation could be had, coal could Ie'
supplied, SO it all depended on rail.
road operation.
Strong Minds at the Helm
Then came the heatless days, when
the administration at Washington
moved heaven and earth to get coal
thru to the ships, to furnish energy
to push them across the seas and
break the blockade in our own coun-
try, a blockade that was fast winning
the war for the Huns. During the
heatless week we coaled forty ships
a day, and sent them overseas with
supplies that saved the allies, and
every hour of every day and night,
official Washington was being
swamped with kilograms and petit
tions to change the program and let
the people have coal whether ships
were coaled or not. If the we'll
meaning people who sent those pro-
tests to Washington had had their
way, we should have been paying tri-
butte to the Huns now or paying an
awful penalty for the lack of nerve
in putting thru the surgical opera
tion necessary to save our business
and Industrial body. But the wishy-
'washy people with two by four ideas
were ignored and forced to submit
to the necessary surgery, just as lot
sof wishy-washy people in our own
county need to be enlightened to
overcome their two by four ideas, or
to be ignored in the big surgical op-
eraticn necessary to put our roads
and road management on a proper
basis.
Enacting a Great Drama
But when the ships were coaled
and started across the seas, there
still remained asscongested eopS1iaiifon
OF the country ciiaf was bound to
choke Everything again unless a
-emedy. was applied. and applied
quickly. Probably not more than a
hundred people in every million un-
the situation, and conse-
luently they did not learn any lesson
rom the great railroad drama that
was being enacted. |,
Every Good Act a Crime
Every separate railroad company
lad been working for fifty years to
ret direct line into Chicago and
rom there to every other large city, >,
md to the coast ports. Everything ,
vas choked with traffic, and If the
government wanted to rush ship ,
nents of munitions thru to tide +.
water, every siding and every main
inc and every set of yards in every
ity along the way was obstructed :
With traffic. If the government had !,
. thousand cars of shelled corn and
'aled hay at Missouri river points {
nd wanted to get them across to
rance to keep its horses and mules
live behind the lines, there was no
abroad that could rush, it thru to
he ships. II q trainload of such I
oods got into q big city it was hard '
o get 1t out. and there was delay. l
( they tried to send it straight east, I
! would be slowed down by the
edious climbing of the crooked roads !
7inding over and among the noun l
aims of Kentucky, Tennessee. West I
'irginia and the coal and iron re-
ions where all lines were choked '
nth traffic. If they tried to bill I
uch shipments over lines that would
void the cities and the hilly country,
lines would block the Il
Ian, and under the laws. the prison c
ell awaited the men who gave the Q
rders to violate the mandates of
tatutes to prevent combinations.
he winning of the war depended on
wifi transportation In America, and t
.merica's laws against combinations 4
I capital were preventing it. There n
'ere laws against every good act c
eeded in railroad management. v
Government Control of Railroads o
In this extremity the government b
ook charge of the railroads, and b
VILLAIN G.. McAdoo, secretary Of the 8
-easury was made director general G
the roads. He called to his aid G
ome Of the ablest railroad men of r
ne country to serve with him, and b
ley violated all the antitrust laws q
,lating to railroad operation, but r
ley got service and not only loaded II
nI,s n