Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-01-24
M'ADOO OUTLINES
RAILROAD PROBLEMS
Director General of Railroads
In Statement to Inter-
state Committee Tells
Needs of Roads.

railroad question. The first is to send
the railroads back into the private
control Of the several hundred old
companies. The second is to have
outright Government ownership and
control of all the railroads. The third
is to reconstruct the railroad map
along logical lines, SO as to wipe out
these hundreds of different railroad
companies and substitute q compare
lively few companies, which under
strict and close Government control,
can be expected to combine the adj
vantages of Government control, in
Guiding unified control Of those things
where it is needed, with the advan-
tages of the initiative Of private man
agement. l am not. committed 10
any particular plan. | wish to lay be-
fore YOU certain reforms which
think are Indispensable and without
which any so-called solution of the
railroad problem will be mere dis
appointing makeshift.
l am frank to say do not believe
that these important reforms can pos
sibly be accomplished if we are to
have in the future several hundred
different railroad companies as we
have had in the past, or even hun
dred, ,r even fifty different railroad
companies. l believe they can all be
accomplished either through a com
paratively few railroad companies or
through single Federal control. If
the country prefers to continue in ex-
istence the hundreds of different rail
road companies as in the past, | be-
lieye it will be necessary for the coun-
try to ab-udo the hope of obtaining
J most of the fundamental reforms
which l propose to point out.
One of the most difficult and impor-
tant railroad problems in this country
is the problem of terminal facilities
1t probably means more to the pro-
ducing and consuming public in the
matter of delays, Inconvenience, and,
transportation burdens than any
other phase of transportation. It is
generally understood THAT the delays
and excessive costs do not occur prin-
cipally on account Of insufficiency of
facilities on the road, but on account
Of inadequate terminals and OF the
heavy terminal costs.
1t is not unnatural that this should
i. be the case. 1t is a far simpler prop
osition to haul train over railroad
than it is to break UP that train in
terminal and distribute it's cars to the
connecting carriers. For one thing,
it is easier to provide adequate track
capacity on the railroad itself, most of
which runs through the country, than
it is to provide adequate track capa-
city in a terminal, which is generally
in the midst of great city. But an
even more important point is that
when the train is being carried over
the railroad between terminals it is
being handled exclusively under one
management and on railroad which
has been planned with unity Of pur-
pose. But the moment a train gets
into a terminal where it's cars must
be separated and delivered to connect
ing lines, then we have to deal with
facilities which havenot been planned
with unity of purpose and which I'M
der private control are not operated
under d single management The
ability of one company to get rid of
the business depends upon what its
connecting companies have provided
in the way of terimal tracks and other
terimal facilities, and upon the way
in which those connecting companies
carry on their operations. 1t is hU
man nature that each company is
much more interested in looking after
it's immediate exclusive interests,
both in the facilities which it provides
and in the way it operates them. than
it is in building and operating its
property so as to help it's connections.
Generally speaking, the cities of this
country and the railroad traffic that
passes through them have wholly out
grown the railroad terminal facilities,
which were provided many years ago
without any conception of the growth
of the country's traffic. 1t is difficult
to get the land to expand the termin-,
ais of any one railroad and each rail-
road company is jealousy trying to
prevent some other railroad from get,
ting the advantage in new terminal
facilities. Each railroad company
wants to plan it's new terminals so as
to help it's own business and so as not
to help its rivals. 1t is true that at
times under pressure of critical neces-
sity some of the railroads at some
cities try to combine portion of their
terminal plans into joint terminal
enterprise. But it takes years for the
railroads to agree on any such matter
and the compreAensiyeness of the par
ticular plan is generally ihterfered
with by the selfishness of some parti-
cularly powerful railroad which feels
that it can preserve certain advan-
tages by refusing to putinto the joint
plan certain facilities which ought to
be put there in the public interest.
The effect is that when it comes to
terminal properties we get clear-cut
oonaiot Of intereSt between the Dub-