Evening star., 1920-04-05
RAISE FREIGHT CAR
RATES 90 PER CENT
Railroads Hope to CurtaiI
Shortage by Speeding
TRANSFORMATION.

BY joint agreement with the prin-
cipal railroads of the country looking
toward speeding up of return of freight
cars to their original owners. the
American Railroad Association.
through its commission on car service.
has increased per diem rates on freight
cars in transport or on foreign rails
from so cents TO 80 cents per day. W.
{. Kendall, chairman of the commits
sion. announced today. By this means
the transportation business of the
country is hoped to be so speeded up
tAat the physical shortage of cars.
amounting to about 10000 monthly,
:i4"E be at least partly overcome.
No Raise I'm Demurrnge Charges.
There has been no raise in demur-
rage charges. however, and no revision
of the rule against demurrage charge
on export freight. The usual demur-
rage charge o. s. per day up to five
days and So per day thereafter is still
in effect Assertions that freight cars
are being used i'll yards in and near
New York by merchants and manufac-
turerS TOR storage of goods due to lack
OF warehouse space are parity true, Mr..
Kendall said. but such conditions are
lot any more prevalent at this time
than normally.
BY increasing the per diem rates and,
at the same time urging ali shippers to
lee as speedy as possible i'll unioadlng
ana sending cars back to home yards.
the car service commission hopes to al
leviatc the tremendous daily loss in
freight hauling capacity due 10 deferred
car acquisitions. which. normally.
amounts to nearly 1900 cars a day
throughout the country. AS further
means toward speeding up the freight
transport facilities of the railroads the
commission has, within the past two
weeks. held conferences with superin-
tendents of transportation and railroad
yards hooking toward speeding up of
the freight business.
II was pointed out today that lack of
suitable bottoms for export freight,
while there is no demurrage charge on
such freight has resulted in tying up
thousands of cars on railroad sidings
at points of export while awaiting the
arrival of ships. Early action on this
matter is expected by the commission
and a joint agreement between the
trunk line railroads and the deep sea
steamship lines toward speeding up
transfer of freight into ships is eX
pected i'll the near future.
COastwise shipping Iinmpered.
Coastwise shipping has been very
seriously interfered with during the
past winter. with a resultant increase
in the number of freight cars tied
up. This condition is daily being bet
tered. however. and will be normal
within a very short time.
For the purposes of speeding up
movement of freight cars in yards in
and about New York city a delega-
ton of yard superintendents and rep
resentatives of consignees will! confer
with the car service commission this
week. 1t is expected this conference
will result in a much more vigorous
prosecution of the campaign to turn
over freight faster.
Reports received today by the car
service commission indicate that the
movement of freight is being bettered
as result of the urgent letters sent
out by the commission to shippers to
unload cars and send them back as
promptly as possible.