Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-12-20
RAILWAYS DELAY
ROAD BUILDING,
WATSON ASSERTS
Materials in Many Cases
Are Unnecessarily Held
UP in Transit, Kansas En-
gineer Says in Address.
(By The AssocIated Pressl

(By The Associated Press)
/ Washington, Dec. 19.-Charging
that some railroads have assumed
the policy Of fighting highway i'm
j provement by seriously delaying
! transportation of road building ma
! terials, and seem 10 look upon the
! improved highways as a COMPETE
tor, NJ. w. Watson, Kansas high
way engineer, urged that the In
terstate Commerce commission
abolish "embargOes, priorities and
permits for freight cars, in an adj
dress before the American Asso-
| citation of State Highway Officials
| here.
THE highway program of Kan
sas and neighboring states suffered
! far more by the inefficiency of rail
transportation during the last sea-
son than from all other causes
combined" said Mr.. Watson. "Of
| course we had some other trou-
bles, such as inefficiency of labor,
| shortage of cement and bad wealth
| er, but these troubles were Lilli-
| putian in comparison with the rail
| situation.
During 1919 and 1920 we placed
| under contract in Kansas, 1919
miles of federal aid road work. OF
this amount We had completed on
/ November a total of 900 miles.
Under normal conditions practical
ly the entire mileage should have
been completed at the end of the
present construction season.
Open Top Equipment.
The producers of road build
ing materials demanding open top
equipment for their shipments
tsand, stone and SO forth) are now
discovering that they have over
looked valuable piece of propa-
ganda which has been Of decided
service to the coal interests during
the last construction season. The
general public has been trained to
term all cars of the open top va
riety as coal cars until even the In
terstate Commerce commission
seems to think that there is ONLY
one use to which such cars can be
put. This fact together with the
apparently we'll organized lobby of
the coal interests has been the
means of securing embargoes and
dizzy if we attempt to trace these
orders around the circle.
This congress would render a
great service to industry in gen.
eral and especially to the construc-
ton activities if they would legis-
late out of use in the commercial
world the three words that have
spelled large part of our grief,
embargo, priority and permit 1t
is true that in the end we were
Obliged to resort to the permit sys-
tenn for the highway shipments but
only to counterfeit the methods
other interests We're employing, and
after all other measures had
failed. Such practice during war
time may be necessary but after
the close of hostilities they should
be placed in the discard. They can
lead only to one end, that is, pref
erential treatment for the indus
try best organized in the way of
lobby.
THE Interstate Commerce COM
mission apparently does not realisA
that there are other industries than
coal. In the past coal shipments
We're greatest when the need for
the fuel was greatest-in the win
ter months-and these cars were
then available for building mate
rails during the summer months
which is the only time when build
ing operations can be carried ON
satisfactorily.
Clever Coal Propaganda.
The clever coal propaganda has
done nothing more than secure the
increase of price desired by the OPP
orators. Part of the time this sea-
son when the open top cars We're
withheld from stone shipments our
mines were idle. 1t would seem the
policy of the Interstate Commerce
commission to reduce the scope of
the nations activities to the size
of our present rail transportation
rather than utilize what we now
have to develop our other avenues
of transportation"
Other classes of equipment were
also scarce in the last season, Mr..
Watson said. For example, Kansas
grain producers were unable to Sc
cure relief while grain was piled
high in the open in many places
throughout the state and elevators
NNlN IiiiVA w tlptiNllys
tor and cattle cars go eastward
through the state when loaded and
empty westward when empty.
Long trains of empties passed by
the cement and brick plants but
were not available for use, accord
ing to Watson.
"Rcco lis show That the larger
railroad ,jres opera Ing IN Kansas
and in fact IN other states as well,
are not utilizing tneir present
equipment to the fullest capacity"
Watson declared. zone of our
roads gets from fifty-four to egh-
ty-six miles a car day out of its
freight cars while another gets
from seventeen to twenty-five, or
not quite as far in a day us the
average team will travel The in
vestigations of Ihe Kansas court of
industrial relations brought out
that many uuaccountable delays
occurred at terminals.
I'VE know that this country is
developing more rapidly than all
the methods OF transportation so
that the highway program should
be aided by the railroads rather