The Washington herald., 1921-08-21

Word, FIN hts first interview ns .prssr
ident. of the Detroit. Toledo and from
ton railroad, today unfoided the plan
for application OF revolutionary en-
gineering ideas. tempered by plain
horse sense. TO do for raiiroading
what he has done for automobile
Manufacturing. :.
s.Dtspfte our deception Of our
selves the fancied progress In
railroad engineering. the plain, cold
fact IL that In railroad engineering
nobody has ever made q good start"
sad the D. T q I. president. we In
tend TO do It."
Locomotives Weighing one-third
the present money eaters" and do
ing. lust as much work with trac-
ton OF the fuel consumption, are q
part Of the Ford vision Of the rail-
ROAD of the future. Likewise. he
will have cars similarly reduced In
weight, carrying present-day ton
mage at cheaper rates under super
vision Of better paid workmen.
Only Wears Out Rails. -
The s00-ton locomotive Of today
cannot be Justified in any way ex-
cept as another means for the bank
ing gentry uttheir exploitation rath-
err than development of the trans
portation system" he added. 1T
only serves to wear out steel rails.
Such rails should last Il hundred
years, though the steel trust would
not like that"
Els the 75-ton locomotive OF I'M
diminished power and engineering a
possibility" he was asked.
"A possibility he came back. II
tell you that we are going to pro-
duSe it,
That statement came from the
railroad president with the same
force employed by the automobile
manufacturer some Years ago in his
discussion of plans for development
Of a motor car within the reach OF
common folks. Today he Is organ
lied to assemble 5000 such automo-
biles per day.
Depends on Accuracy.
Half the people who ride in au-
tomoblies now ride in our cars.
he explained. That is because the
car Is light. made of good material.
and Is put together with the accu-
racy So essential to good service.
II the accuracy weren't there we
wouldn't assemble them with the
speed we do.
Well. the same general prin-
ciples will put the people behind
the lighter and more efficient loco
motive in the future" he added.
Furthermore. We will put an end
to. the day when storms are aofs
to paralyze railroads by interfer-
ence with the lines Of communica-
ton. We will do our train dis
patching by wireless telephones.
and snap our fingers at storms and
maintenance charges"
In all his discussion or raIlroad-
ing he was dealing with the future
of the D. T. & l., and not the past.
For six months that former joke
in the railroad family has been un-
der active Ford management. and
in that brief period the nation was
brought to realize that the busy-
ness Of railroading was due for such
an overhaulipg as he gave automo-
bile manufacturinE. -
Make. R.ilrsas Pay.
That was done without the intro-
duction Of a single revolutionary
idea In engineering such as are
crowding in the, automobile manu-
facturer's mind for the future. That
road was turned into a paying IN
stitution virtually overnight by the
well-known Ford formulate calling
for increased pay, reduced waste In
labor and materials. and more eff
cient service at less cost. all in
creasing the volume Of business.
do not get the idea that we
know anything about the transpor.
tation business" he insisted. when
ever the interview threatened to
touch on his successful operation
of the D. T. & l., but We do know
something Of the failure of rail-
roads to serve the public. We're q
part of the public"
However. he could not deny that