Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-10-27
Would Set Out to Accomplish
Four Necessary Things.
No Reason to Go to Banks
for Money
An Interview by
{ WILLIAM ATHERTON DU PUY
In The Nations Business
Authorized, and Corrected by
Hnnv.u EnrI

| WILLIAM AIHERION DU PUY
In The Nations Business
Authorized and Corrected by
| Henry Ford.
eff you were operating a railroad
such as the Pennsylvania or the
New York Central" / said to Hen
ry Ford, out at his office in Dear
born, "how would you proceed?"
in any such case; would i'm
mediately set about accomplishing
four things" he replied. Il would
reorganize in such a way as to get
rid Of the unproductive stockhold'
er. ] would redesign the rolling
| stock. ] would expedite the de-
| livery OF freight. ] would discharge
unnecessary employees.
1.-THE first thing to be done any
where Is to reorganize by getting
rid OF unproductive stockholders.
The real purpose Of a railroad is to
| serve the public. There Is no rea-
son why 1t 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 operationg. Pay
| ing dividends to these people is a
burden which should be lifted from
the railroads. The greater the over
capitalization. the heavier the
overcapitalization, the heavier the
burden. It bears them down and
prevents them from serving their
purpose. In the end the public pays
these dividends. They are a tax on
the whole people.
There is a possible and practica.
BILE system Of financing railroads
by which those contributing the
money will be in positions to aid
directly to the success Of the under
taking. If the brakeman on rail-
road owns stock in it, he has an
additional inducement to competent
service. Better service is a valua-
BILE by-product, which will come
from his ownership Of stock. If
the railroad is a success, it is due
to him and his fellow-workmen, and
they are entitled to the profit
Railroads should not have to go
to banks for money. They can be
otherwise financed. In fact, finance
is the wrong term to use. We talk
90 much about finance.
thing is to make a railroad work.
Make it possible for people to use
If as much as
there will be no trouble about fl
nances. The trouble is that we start
with finance. and expect finance to
make the road go. Finance can't do
that. Finace is a failure.
Cars Too Heavy
"Of course, if such course were
attempted, we could expect a great
outcry for the protection Of invested
capital. It would be said that peo-
ole had bought these stocks for the
financial protection Of their families,
their children. Protection from
what? From the necessity Of earn
ing their living. Their children
would be better off if they had to
finance themselves.
Proper financing would, of course,
be easier on new roads. On the old
ones, however, it should be possible
to retire the parasite, non-contrib-
uting stockho1der and get the own
ership into the proper hands.
After removing this dividend
drain, the second step would be to
remove the great physical burden
of the railroads-needless weight of
it's rolling stock. Overnight Of roll.
ing stock is the prime mistake on
the mechanical 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 it carries, and a
passenger train is twenty times as
heavy This dead weight must be
moved whether train is loaded or
empty. The cost Of pulling empty
trains is needlessly large. Contrast
this with the efficiency Of the bicycle
which weighs twenty pounds and
will carry a man who weighs zoo
pounds" III
at is commended" suggested,
that weight is necessary to make
railroad cars hold the track"
Were you ever arrested for speed
ing?" Mr.. Ford countered. "If so,
the cop who overhauled you was
mounted on motorcycle that weigh
ed about one-tepth as much as your
car, yet it was speedier than you
were. The problems of holding the
rails can be taken care of in re-de-
sign.
Here is an example Of re-deisgn
in freight cars. The axle Of a car
and the two wheels upon it operate
as unit almost as though they were
one piece. When the car goes around
a curve one wheel has to travel far
Their than the other. Since they are
on the same axle and one can not
turn without the other, this makes
it necessary that one wheel should
slip on the rail. There are theoret-
| ical compensations which 1t is claim
ed take care of this difference OF
distance travelled by wheels but they
are not real compensations. The
axle connecting these wheels must
be very strong to force the slip. To
secure this strength the axle must
be very thick and heavy.
What we have set out to do is
| to design an axle that will allow for
this difference in the distance the
wheels have to travel, that will make
| the slip unnecessary. We have al
| ready solved the problem, but in
doing SO we have greatly reduced
| the weight Of the undergear of every
! car.
| Revolutionary Changes
I'VE are not governed in our re-
| design Of rolling stock by what has
gone before. We are going to make
some revolutionary changes. We
! find that the present types Of roll
ing stock can be greatly improved.
| On the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton
we are using up the ODD types Of
| engine and car, but they will be
displaced by better types. We will
patent our new designs where they
are patentable, but we will do this
only to prevent someone else from
doing so. Some patients are taken