Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-04-13
|CAR Distribution
COMMISSIONER
Government Aids Semi-0f-
ficiaIIy in Moving Freight
Trains.

Equal distribution Of freight cars
throughout the United States In pro-
portion to the demand, 50 that the
burdens Of the present car shortage
| will be equally distributed. is the OBJ
| iect of the commission of car service
Of the American Railway Association.
located in Washington and bearing a
semi official relation to the govern
ment.
Hundreds of cars are being moved
daily at the instance of the commits
sion, which has before 1T at all times
a record Of how many cars are on
each system. and the percentage above
or below the number Of cars owned
by that road. 1t arbitrarily orders
cars from one road or one section OF
the country to another. regardless OF
! the ownership of the cars, being gov
erned only by the transportation
needs Of the country as whole.
Though the response is voluntary
by the roads, they are not blind to the
| fact that this may be done under the
law by the Interstate Commerce Com
| mission as a result Of the compromise
| bill that turned the roads back to pri-
| vate control March l. and that may pc
one reason the directions OF the car
service commission are followed -
readily. The Interstate Commerce
| Commission is at present leaving 'he
matter of car distribution to the car
service commission, for the govern
ment has not organized highly teen
nical force such as is necessary TO
carry on that work.
Commissions Big Problem.
The main problem Of the car service
commission is to keep the cars from
congregatins at the big unloading
centers IN the east and remaining on
the eastern roads Indefinitely.
Nf
may show an eastern road has Is per
cent more cars on Its lines than 1t
owns, while a western or middle western
road lie operating with but 70 or ~
per cent Of the number Of cars 1t owns.
An order will Immediately be issued 10
the eastern road to send so many hum
bred cars to the western road. moving
q certain per cent Of them every day.
and the order IL carried out. even
though the eastern road Is very much
embarrassed by the car shortage.
Orders Of this nature are going out
from washington daily to many Of more
than 200 Interstate roads. and now and
then some official Of q road ordered to
release q large block OF cars burns up
the wires to this city in saying that
the cars cannot be spared. out the o1oer
generally stands.
Were the matter Of insuring every
road the use Of as many cars as 1t
owns the only problem before the car
service commission, its work would be
comparatively easy. but there are many
calculations. Some roads are better
supplied with cars than others, but the
producing markets and the consuming
markets cannot be neglected on that
account and the road may be assigned
more cars than 1t owns to meet some
temporary demand.
Instance Of Car Concentration.
Seasonal demands also must be con-
sidered, and just now several thou
sand refrigerator cars are being con-
centrated in Colorado to move the hrst
Of the big cantaloupe crop, which Will
begin to move eastward next month
The biggest concentration Of this kind
is the concentration Of grain cars in
the northwest late in the summer for
shipment Of the wheat harvest, but
there are a dozen other harveets to be
taken into ccount. and all OF this Is
directed through the car service COM
mission.
Word was received this week from
Missouri that the storms Of Few days
ego had damaged the peach crop Of
Arkansas and southern Missouri to
such an extent that the expected ship
ment Of 1000 or 1900 carloads OF
peaches from that district would be
cut to ABOUT 800 cars. which will re-
lieve the commission Of the task OF
requisitioning hundreds of cars for
that territory from lines that already
! are short Of rolling stock.
Situation ON Canadian Roads.
Canadian roads are in much the
same position as the roads in this
country, and cars that cross the inter-
national border are being watched
| jealousy by each side. Officials Of the
with a statement made in the Cana
| dian parliament last week by the min :
lister OF railways, that there are now
$4,000 cars in the United States be-
| longing to Canadian roads.
! Figures in the hands Of the commits
| railroad authorities. show that the
roads Of the Dominion own 2O5, 731
freight cars. and on March Is last
there was 90.1 per cent of that mum :
| Der on Canadian lines. That would
show the Canadian roads were short
minion minister was right in saying
there are 10000 cars from that coun-
+! try in the states, he failed to say that
there are also some 10000 cars from
this country in Canada.
| Tho Canadian National road owns
10,S4O cars. and has 3h per cent more
box cars on its lines than it owns, as
well as more aat cars and gondolas than
it owns. Tho Canadian Pacific, on the
other hand. like many Western roads
In the states, has fewer cars on its rails
than Il has in the service
| Complaints Of Non-Return.
| Complaints recently made to tho In
terstate Commerce Commission that
cars used in making grain shipments
from Minneapolis and Duluth to the east
were not being returned were referred
to the car service commission. and cars
are now being drawn from the eastern
| lines to keep the stream of grain flow
ing eastward. This is done both in JUS
tice to the Minnesota shippers and to
the purchasers Of the grain in the east
| Certain southern roads have bought
ventilated freight cars to use in ship
ping early vegetables to northern
markets These cars are not in de-
mand on the roads that own them more
than three or four months of the year,
and the car service commissions task
lie to see that none of them remains idle
during the fall and winter seasons. As
a result these roads usually have fewer
cars on their lines than they actually
own, but their specially constructed cars
are returned to them in time to carry
the vegetable crop to the big markets.
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