Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-29
A|LS|TUAT|ON Z !.
CHASTITY. TANG[E,
COLVERDEGARES
Tells Advertisers Present Car
Distribution System
Is to Blame.

country ''as a unit as a mems of re-
| lieving the present transportation diff
culties was suggested today William
sion. in an address before the Washing
ton Ad Club, at its fortnightly luncheon.
Mr.. Colver predicted that a continu-
alton of the present situation would
mean untold suffering and Industrial
shutdowns next winter" Hundreds of
millions OF dollars are tied up now in
merchandise in side-tracked cars. he
said, keeping from the market badly
| needed capital
THere We are at the end of June
Mr. Colver said, land one-fifth of the
season of lake navigation is gone One
tenth Of the needed coal for next win
ter's supply has been moved to the head
of the lakes.
This. unless remedied, means untold
suffering and industrial shutdowns in
| the northwest next winter. The indus
tries Of New England are actually clos
ing down now, in midsummer, for lack
of coal The number of open-top cars
delivered at the coal mines is now and
always has been the absolute measure
Of the possible production of the mines.
And in this month of June, the most
favorable from a weather standpoint,
both as to production and transporta-
ton, the coal mines by and large were
| allotted about Is per cent of the cars
| which they needed. The coal miners
nominally receiving wage SO high as
to seem unheard of and being able to
work only one day a week, see their
families going hungry. A scale of wages
per hour does not mean much unless we
know how many hours are to be worked
or how many days.
Volume Regulates Profits.
Margin per ton to the producer or
distributor may mean profiteering or il
| may mean an actual loss, depending
entirely upon volume of business.
Since 1915 you have heard a con-
| tinual clamor about car shortage and
that is taken to mean that there are not
enough cars and that the poor starved
railroads ought to have more cars. The
| fact is that if the available open-top
cars, after liberal allowance to other
industries requiring such cars had
| been made, were loaded with coal and
moved at canal-boat speed, being al
lowed twenty days for a round trip
and being allowed shop-time for repairs
in excess of the requirements of ex.
perience, there are enough cars now
on the tracks to move all the coal that
| this country could possibly use and
have surplus equipment which
would take care of over fifty million
additional tons or nearly a 10 per cent
overload factor of safety.
Wheat Crop Coming.
within few days we will begin to
harvest a new crop of wheat, and 20
per cent of their last years crop is
still in the hands of Kansas farmers
because they have not been able to get
cars to move that wheat. Other sec.
tions of the country are similarly sit.
uated. The farmers have borrowed
money on this 1919 wheat. The bankers
cannot finance the 1890 crop until the
loans on the 1919 crop are paid. Those
loans cannot be paid unless the grain
fcans get to market. And yet we hear
predictions Of $500 -four and 25-cent
1 bread.
so far as know, there is just one
thing upon which both the believers
in private ownership Of railroads and
the believers in government owner
ship Of railroads fully and absolutely
agree. It is that maximum efficiency
can only be had from the railroads OF
the country if these railroads are one
operating unit.
Car Distribution Weakness.
$50 long as the railroads are op-
ership Of motive power and rolling
stock no railroad, not even the richest
one, can operate profitably and with
reasonable rates il it has to supply
itself with a motive power and rolling
stock equipment capable of taking
care of its peak load.
The rolling stock. and more espe-
cially the motive power equipment,
under separate operation is divided up
into water-tight compartments. II
for great increase in the number of
locomotives and cars and il the mil
lions and millions of dollars which
have been set aside for that purpose
are employed by treating the rail-
roads as separate operating entities.
afford to have, a complete and ade-
Quate equipment and we will only
have put, out of the public purse, a
little more in each water-tight COM
partment with a very fair chance of
having accomplished nothing more
than an addition to seasonal and re-
| gional congestion.
Eject ON Advertising Seen.
'Tf the CHASTITY transportation tam
gle were cleared up, advertising
would still have remaining in it's path
! an obstacle which it must surmount.
| or, better still, remove, before it can
reach a 100 per cent delivery Of re-
suits-which is it's end and aim. 1t
| would have to meet and overcome an
unreasonable, unhealthy and indecent
price structure before it could return
| full results to the advertiser. So,
then, advertising and advertising men
should be, and must be, interested in
| the subject of taxation.
I'VE have had a perfectly good war,
and now we must arrange to pay thir
ty or forty billions of dollars for it.
If the burden Of paying that debt is
| laid upon business, and il we are to
| continue to tax industry. effort, en-
| ergy and productivity, then those tax
| es, and all of them, are going to be
reflected back into sales prices which
| the consumer must pay before adver-
| tising can deliver results. If. on the
other hand, we should choose to tax
| idleness and inaction and failure to
produce, we should cease tQzpenalize
productive effort and to gi3e bonusus
| to speculation and to disuee. That
| would be distinctly good f6r the ad-
vertising game.
st am for public works. but only
when we can afford them, and only
| in a reasonable proportion to the
total national expenditure. I would
rather see a new fact3H built in a
town than a new post vff1ce or new
city hall. I would rather see a new
silo than "a new concrete culvert.
am for good roads, hUt would rather
see the good road run from a mill to
a freight depot thaaf from the sherifrs
office to the cemey
/