New-York tribune., 1920-10-18
By H. F.. Byram
President of the Chicago, Mil,caukee
K st. Paul Raiiauau

& st. Paal Railauav
The railroad problem. so cafled has
oeen absorbing the attention of the
press and public during and since the
war to an extent and with sense Of
responsibility that never existed le-
tore. Why? Because the ever-increas-
ing control of state and national gov
erhment over the revenues and opera
tons OF the railroads has gradually
shfted the responsibility for their
financial welfare almost entirely TO the
state and interstate railroad commits
slons and the United States Railway
Labor Board
But the success or failure of rail
road operation under the new plan
after September will depend largely
on the supply Of freight cars tina. we
are able to furnish the public. The
supply of passenger cars. while not
abundant, is sufficient, so that all WHO
need to ride can travel. But all who
want to ship freight cannot get freight :
cars. In the Northwest there has been
almost continuous shortage of grain
cars tor several years, and this year,
with probably the largest grain crop
ever grown now being harvested, the
shortage is more acute than ever. The
grain carrying roads in the West have
in the past provided sufficient grain
cars to carry the grain to the central
markets reached by their own lines,
but only small part of their grain
cars are on the lines of their owners.
For instance, the Chicago, Milwaukee e
G. st. Paul Railway Company on July
/. 1915, owned 81 1851 box cars and had
26,661, or 70 per cent of them, on its
own rails. On July l, 1920, we owned
39,479 box cars and had only 6,746, or
Is per cent of them. on our rails. To
be sure, we had 29,O25 cars belonging
to other roads in place of our own, but
all together we had only 81 per cent
Of what we owned, and about 40 per
cent OF these not fit for grain loading.
Many Western roads have even a small
er percentage of the cars they own.
Deterioration of Equipment
The freight car equipment of the
country has become so thoroughly
mixed that most of the cars are on
roads which do not own them, and con-
scquently they are not kept in good
repair to make them suitable for the
use for which they were purchased by
their owners. This is especially true
of the box cars, which must have good
roofs and be tight for carrying loose
grain and similar commodities.
The roads pay each other a daily
rental for each car while it is off the
owners line. but this is reciprocal rate
and is not sufficient to compensate the
owning line for not having its cars
when needed by its patrons. Why
don't the railroads keep their cars at
home? Because they cannot The
shipper wants the car he loads to take
It's contents through without being
transferred when its destination is on
another road, and the law says it must
be done, unless something happens to
the car. This is all right and the
railroads have accepted the situation,
but getting the car back to its owner
after reaching its destination is the
problem 1t may not be convenient for
the road which then has the car to
place 1T where some shipper has load
for it in the direction of home, or it
may be unloaded by shipper who
needs car to load in an entirely diff
ferent direction, and so it goes on
perhaps still farther away from home,
and back and forth on countless Jour
neys for years until a chance load
brings it back home, neglected and out
OF repair, Cor the owner to fix up be-