Evening star., 1921-10-25

If Henry Ford was placed in charge
Of one Of the big railroads OF the
country there are four things he
would do Immediately to put them on
the road to prosperity. He explains
them In the November issue OF Ma
tion's Business, and sets forth the
following prescription for curing the
railroads of what he believes are
their present Ills:
II would feorganize in such a way
as to. get rid of the unproductive
stockholder. I would redesign the
rolling stock. I would expedite the
delivery Of freight, sn,owes Wouad dis
an article by "a 1Eilroad President"
who contends that Mr.. Ford has given
the Detroit. Toronto and 1ronton rail-
road, which he recently purchased,
the appearance of prosperity by
making 1t an adjunct of his other
interests and not by selling trans
portation in the open market.
His First Cure.
In explaining the first Of his four
cures for the railroads.&c. elimlna-
tion of the unproductive stockholder
Mr.. Ford says:
1.-THE real purpose of railroad is
reason why it should be diverted
from that service and set to doing
an entirely different thing-putting
money into the pockets OF stock
holders who make no contribution to
the roads actual operation. Paying
dividends to these people is a bur-
den which should be lifted from the
railroads."
Continuing this explanation, Mr.. Ford
,aid:
Railroads should not have to go to
banks for money. They can be other
wise financed. In fact. finance is the
wrong term to use. We talk too
much about finance. The first thing
is to make q railroad work.
wake it possible for people to use
there will be no trouble about
finances The trouble is that we start
with finance and expect finance to
make the road go. Finance can't do
that. Finance is a failure.
Easier ON New Road.
proper financing would. of course.
be easier ON new roads. On the old
ones, however, it should be possible to
retire the parasite, non-contributing
stockholder and get the ownership
into the proper hands.
After removing the dividend drain,
the second step would be to remove
the great physical burden OF the rail-
roads-needless weight of its rolling
stock. Overweight of rolling stocn
is the prime mistake on the mechan
fcal side, OF railroading. Engines and
cars are four or five times as heavy
as they should be. A freight train is
several times the weight of the load
1t carries. and q passenger train is
twenty times as heavy. This dead
weight must be moved whether a
train is loaded or empty. Contrast
this with the efficiency of the bicycle.
which weights twenty pounds and
will carry a man who weights 200
pounds"
Mr.. Ford states that new types of
rolling stock are now being designed
for his railroad along revolutionary
lines.
Bookkeeping Complicated.
The automobile manufacturer ex-
pressed it as his opinion that the
Of the big railroads are complicated
beyond necessity and could be SIM
plified in the interest of economy.
when we acquired the D., T. & I.
there were $500 people on its pay
roll" said Mr.. Ford. I've found
almost Immediately that by cutting
out the lost motion We could reduce
the number to $500. This We did.
In the interest Of better service we
raised the wages of all those who
remained OH the payroll"
Part Of His Business.
The railroad president whose
article appears In conjunction with
the Ford interview, gives his version
of Mr.. Ford's success in running the
D., T. & l. railroad in the following
words:
"Mr Ford's acquisition Of the